Introductory remarks by Director-General, Mkuseli Apleni
Good afternoon colleagues, as you have heard, we were today briefing the Home Affairs Portfolio Committee on the annual performance plan as it is now referred to.
Basically, our approach was to give the Portfolio Committee an overview of progress in the 2011/12 financial year as well as some of our priorities and strategic objectives in the year ahead, 2012/13.
In terms of our progress in civic services and immigration – you will recall that in 2010, the Minister together with the President launched the National Population Registration Campaign. One of the main objectives was to ensure babies are registered within 30 days and this is the only entry point into the population register. We were therefore looking at progress over the last three years.
In the 2009/10 financial year we were able to register 445 853 babies within 30 days and then what we refer to as the Late Registration of Birth (LRB), this is when children are registered after 15 years – this amounted to 174 084 and the children registered between 31 days and 14 years amounted to 1 147 990. These were the statistics when we began the campaign in 2010.
In the 2010/11 financial year, the numbers increased. In this regard, the number of babies registered between 0 to 30 days amounted to 500 524. The LRB cases increased to 190 000. This was because we were strengthening the messages to encourage people to come forward if they did not have a birth certificate. The number of babies registered between 31 days to 15 years decreased to 1 086 091. It means the effect of registering babies within 30 days was increasing.
In the current financial year – 2011 to January 2012, babies registered from 0-30 days already stands at 455 821 and LRB cases have further reduced to 89 371 and children registered within 31 days to 14 years stands at 908 719. This is a good trend for us because it says to us that people are beginning to heed the call to register their babies within 30 days of birth.
We still need to do more because what we want to see at the end is that the number of babies registered between 0-30 days reaches a million while the other categories drop significantly. This is amongst others, what we were briefing the Portfolio Committee about.
Also, our strategy to do this was to connect hospitals. We were indicating to the committee that when we began this campaign we had 127 hospitals connected to the department’s database but we now have 235 hospitals connected. We are still going to the 140 hospitals manually to collect applications forms and bringing them to the offices so babies can be registered. This is a vehicle we want to use. We have a total of 370 hospitals of which 235 are already connected leaving us with a total of 140 hospitals from which we manually collect applications.
Also we shared with the committee how our footprint is expanding as a department. We currently have 705 offices across the country. One of the important elements is the mobile offices, those on wheels. We have 117 of these offices. The key element of it is that we did not have staff for these offices in the past, only the driver. What was happening is that staff will be borrowed from various offices to render services through the mobile offices. We were therefore not effectively increasing the reach of the department.
To date we have 137 filled posts for officials who are now staffing our mobile units. These offices go to the communities to render services and they now have staff.
We realised that we also needed to involve the communities if we were to meet our objectives. We therefore came up with the concept of stakeholder forums. And prior to the Local Government Elections we had about 254 forums. However, after the elections, this number diminished slightly. We have now tried to strengthen these forums. Today, out of 287 municipalities which we have, we have maintained 244. We are reviving 28 of these and we are left with 15. By the end of this year, all the stakeholder forums in municipalities will be effective.
You will also remember that we last year strengthened our legislation – around civic issues. There were amendments which we put through on the Births and Deaths Registration Act as well as the Citizenship Act and the online fingerprint verification with the banks which we launched.
With regard to immigration, the most significant issue was for us to strengthen the centralisation of permits at headquarters. We were reporting to the Portfolio Committee that this process is working well for the department and we are now able to issue the permits within the stipulated amount of time. We are in the process of clearing any backlogs.
Around this we also put through amendments to the Refugees and Immigration Acts.
At the moment we are working together as a cluster to ensure we strengthen the management of immigration. You will recall that the Minister last year announced our intention to prioritise immigration since we feel we have turned the corner with civics issues.
As you know at OR Tambo International we were able to replace immigration officers there and we are now working on strengthening human resource capacity at harbours, including here in Cape Town.
With regard to human resources, basically we were showing them the model we have implemented since 1 April. Before this we were working on a zonal approach but we realised that if Home Affairs is to be effective, it must be close to the people. We then went back to the provinces – we now have a provincial manager who is responsible for all the processes within the province – a refugee centre, a port of entry, whatever.
So if there are issues, we can have the provincial manager account. We have implemented this successfully and the department now has districts. For each district in a municipality, we have a district manager operation who can look after the business of the municipality. So basically we are looking at an operations model.
We also shared with the Portfolio Committee that the human resource capacity is increasing within the department but not at a high rate, especially due to budgetary constraints. However, we are still growing at a rate of about 3%.
You will know that we have also settled with Gijima issue and the department will now be automating its processes. With this, we will be able to release some staff for the front line offices as we automate.
Well colleagues, employment equity is always an issue. We know that we are mandated to have a gender balance of 50/50 but we have not reached this level as yet. In the 2008/09 year we had a balance of 38%, in the 2009/10 year we had a balance of 39% and in the 2010/11 year we had a balance of 38%. So male employees in management positions is still higher than females in managerial positions.
We are working on achieving parity.
One of the sore points is the issue of disability. As you know, government has a quota of 2%. We are still not doing very well in this regard. In the 2008/09 year, we had 0.89%, in the 2009/10 year we had 0.5%, and in the 2010/11 year we had 0.57%. So we are not even at 1% of the 2% quota.
However, there has been an improved because we have established a disability forum within the department and these members also participate in our management forums so we are able to be conscientised about this matter on an ongoing and regular basis.
So we are really looking at these issues when we deal with appointments in the year ahead 2012/13.
In terms of race, there are still other citizens where we do not meet targets. In the Indian community we have 0.9% in the department, in the Coloured community, 5.9% and in the White community 8.3% and with regard to Blacks, we have 91.7%. These are the things we are mindful about in the department because once we have this, we can implement processes to ensure we get the right balance as is required by law in this country.
We have also touched on the issue of discipline. As you know, at Home Affairs we are coming from a culture where it was a free for all. But processes have been put in place to ensure we focus on the issues of discipline to ensure we service the people of this country in a way they deserve.
When we looked at our figures, for the year 2008/09 we had about 366 internal disciplinary matters. But this dropped to 150 in the 2009/10 year which has further reduced in the 2010/11 year when we had 139. When we are asked why there is a drop, we are saying that officials are realising that the systems that have been put in place enable us to trace corrupt behaviour to the perpetrator. We can tell exactly who has produced the fraudulent document, etc.
Of course, this is a well known matter but we shared with the committee that in the 2008/09 year, the department had a qualification with four matters. In 2009/10 it had also received a qualification but with one matter. And in the year 2010/11 we received our first unqualified audit. We are still striving for a clean audit report.
We also spoke to them about the matters of transformation within the department with which we will be seized in the year ahead. What was important for us was that we realised the top-down approach did not work. So when we were developing this strategic plan we had to begin from the bottom. We had a meeting of senior managers which was followed by a mini-retreat. We included in this meeting all the directors upward together with officials with certain functionalities within the department.
But what was important for us was to call all the heads of offices – we had a meeting of more than 500 people in one room where we discussed this strategic plan. This was so that for me as an individual, I am able to see where I fit in and what I can do to contribute to the strategic objectives of the department. This is a product of that collective within the department. So we can expect that each staff member can understand the priorities of the department and what we want to achieve. This will assist us to ensure that as a department we are all going in the same direction.
Now colleagues, regarding the priorities going forward, we have grouped this into three areas. If we can achieve these we will have delivered on our mandate.
There are only three issues – the one is the transformation of the department – we want to develop a cadre and a leadership that is security conscious, professional, caring and responsive to the needs of all South Africans. This is what we are looking for.
The second issue is the modernisation of our systems. As I have indicated, we settled the matter with Gijima. Now we will be signing the definitive agreement. Now going forward is the issue of rolling out that modernisation.
The third issue is to prioritise, establish and secure a responsive and efficient immigration. In that we will ensure we establish sound immigration legislation and policy, put in place secure, effective and efficient immigration processes and systems, engage stakeholders proactively and effectively, domestically and internationally with a strong focus on capacity development on the border environment and sea ports in particular.
With regard to IT, we will be looking at live capture. You will recall we have live capture technology at some of our offices for passports. We want to introduce this for IDs as well. We want to also introduce the permitting and visa solutions, online application system, electronic management control system, electronic document system as well as infrastructure upgrade, the issue of the smart card – in our budget speech on 25 April 2012 the Minister will be making an announcement in this regard, the issue of the trusted traveller systems in terms of areas where people are frequency coming into the country like with the Basuto on Maseru Bridge so we are able to facilitate their movement quickly.
Well, with regard to our ports of entry – we have received R110 million from National Treasury to improve the infrastructure at our ports of entry – this includes accommodation for our staff, offices so those ports of entry are a conducive environment for our staff to perform.
This is what we were sharing with the portfolio committee. Our targets are included in the Strategic Plan.
This is what I wanted to share with you and we will now take your questions.
Questions and answers:
Question: Director-General (DG) can you please re-iterate the successes of the National Population Registration Campaign? Do you have a timeline for the completion of connecting hospitals to the department’s database to encourage the registration of babies at birth?
Answer (Director-General Mkuseli Apleni): In the 2009/10 year we registered 445 853 babies from 0-30 days, the LRB cases we finalised (15 years and above) 174 084. Babies were also registered between 31 days and 14 years – these amounted to 1 147 990.
In 2010/11 the number of babies we registered between 0-30 days amounted to 552 400 which is an increase from the previous year. In terms of the LRB we finalised 190 091 cases. We realised that had increased from the previous year but we believe it is because South Africans are realising they must have a birth certificate to have an ID. You cannot be over the age of 15 without a birth certificate.
Then from 31 days to 1 year, this amounted to 1 086 901. It reduced from the 1 147 990 because it is clear more people are beginning to register their babies within 30 days.
The figures for 2011 up to January this year – on babies being registered within 0-30 days, this amounts to 455 821 – this surpasses the number for 2009/10. The LRB cases have also dropped to 89 371 – this says to us that we have covered a lot of people who have not been registered by the age of 15. We want to see this further reducing.
On the registration of babies from 31 days to 14 years, this amounts to 908 719. What we are saying as a department is that we want to see the registration of babies from 0-30 days increasing to above a million and LRBs to get to a zero.
On the issue of registration of babies from 0-30 days, we had a press conference a few weeks ago where we said to the public they must understand we are finalising our regulations and once these are in place, penalties will be imposed on parents and caregivers for not registering their babies within 30 days. There will be different penalties for babies not being registered within 30 days, for babies not being registered from 31 days to 1 year, another if the baby is not registered from 1 to 14 years and a very steep penalty if the child is not registered after the age of 15.
We are saying by making sure we are connecting hospitals, there is no reason why babies cannot be registered. We want to ensure people understand this.
On the number of hospitals – you must remember that while we increase our hospital connectivity, the Department of Health also increases the number of hospitals they build.
In the 2012/13 financial year we want to connect 80 hospitals, 90 in the 2013/14 financial year and another 90 in the 2014/15 financial year. We want to continue to connect hospitals. We think we can cover 140 hospitals within 2 years.
Question: Director-General, on the issue of the Zimbabwe Dispensation Project – is the department confident it was able to reach all the Zimbabweans that needed to be reached? What will happen to those Zimbabweans who do not have permits?
Answer (Director-General Mkuseli Apleni): We have been clear on this matter that there will not be another Zimbabwean Dispensation Project because during this campaign we were clear that this did not mean we would be promoting the illegal entry into South Africa of any nationality. However, we did appreciate the challenges of the Zimbabweans in our country and we gave them an opportunity to regularise their stay in South Africa.
And we indicated even at that time that if you fail to apply for a permit before 31 December 2010 you will become illegal in the country and you will have to face the relevant provisions of the Immigration Act.
There will therefore not be another Zimbabwe Dispensation Project. We will bring the current process to a close and then we will have to apply the relevant provisions of the immigration act.
The only thing that may happen is as the Minister has said, we may following the lessons learnt, apply this process to other groups of undocumented nationals in the country.
Closing remarks by Director-General Mkuseli Apleni
We would like to thank the media with whom we have been working well. As a department we are saying we have grounded policies. And now we want to transform the department to enable it to be responsive to the needs of the people. a critical pillar for this is the people. we want to therefore concentrate on people development. Once we have achieved this, we will be able to take the department to where it needs to go and this will be our priority in the 2012/13 financial year.
