19 May 2003
Madam Speaker
Deputy Speaker
Ministers
Deputy Minister
Honourable Members
Comrades and friends.
Introduction
Madam Speaker the African National Congress supports the budget for Home Affairs for 2003-2004 budget year.
Today we gather in this house on the eve of the general election, which will take place next year. South African citizens for the third time will go to the polls as a united country in its diversity. This is indeed a milestone in the history of our country and our people.
We have what we have today due to the sacrifices made by South Africans like Moses Kotane, Bram Fischer, Govan Mbeki, Lillian Ngoyi, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Chris Hani, Parks Mankahlana, Peter Mokaba, to mention but a few. We salute these stalwarts of our country.
Because every person in South Africa - citizens, residents, visitor or refugee is a client of the Department of Home Affairs, highly quality service delivery is the strategic goal that directs departmental planning and action. The Department is committed to variety of programme that will fundamentally transform infrastructure and business system that provide the platform for service delivery.
Madam Speaker since 1998 till this financial year of 2003-2004 the budget allocation for Home Affairs has been increasing in real terms. It is also projected that in the medium term it will continue to grow. If the budget continues to grow we need to ask two important questions. The first is: with this financial support that the Department has been getting, has the Department transform itself over the last nine years?
The second question is: with the increase of the budget in real terms is the services rendered to our people, real improved? Yes, there have been some improvement but the process of transformation and service delivery is very slow I am asking this two questions. Just over a week ago the Portfolio Committee of Home Affairs and the Portfolio Committee on Social Development went on a Study tour to observe how the two departments are working in the Eastern Cape in the O. R. Tambo District Municipality. What we saw there is really pathetic. To this effect a report will be tabled in Parliament by the two Committees soon.
I think it is important to note few things that we saw in that visit. Among the things that we have seen are the following:
This does not only apply to the Eastern Cape, in many parts of our country we have notice these problems.
Civic services
Honourable members for democracy and modern economy to function in the way that is expected, the identity and status of all individuals living and working in the country must be recorded accurately, efficiently and it must be accessible. Recording the identity and status of citizens, residents and visitors is crucial to the management and regulation of social, economic and political activity in a particular country. It also forms the foundation for the democratisation and development of the society.
Recording the identity and status of people in the country requires a new system of population register. We appreciate the effort by the department to rewrite the population register. Rewriting of the population register becomes imperative. The realisation of this objective is linked to the whole system of a new identity system known as Home Affairs National Identification System. {HANIS}. The HANIS project was approved by Cabinet 1996; seven years down the line we have not yet seen the sign of HANIS yet. Where is the delay? Why the Department is rolling over funds that are assigned for the HANIS project? We call upon the Minister and the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs to whip their staff in the Department to speed up the implementation of this project.
The implementation of this project will radically transform the society and improve service delivery. It will also assist many departments in identifying accurately the beneficiaries of the services they render to the public. My colleague Honourable Anelyz Van Wyk will elaborate further on this matter.
Elections
Madam Speaker as I indicated earlier on, that next year our people will be going to the polls. We want these elections to be professionally organised and efficiently conducted. We do not want the American type of a situation during the presidential elections of 2000. We want the Independent Electoral Commission {IEC} to be given all the necessary infrastructure and resources to run efficient and problem free elections.
On the 5th of March this year, Cabinet has approved a minority report from the Electoral Task Team { ETT}. The report sets the framework for the conduct of the elections next year. The African National Congress also wants to agree with the Cabinet position on adoption of the Minority report.
This Parliament needs to pass a law that will set the framework for the conduct of elections next year. Up until now we have not done so. This situation will put this parliament under tremendous pressure in the next term. By not having the law in place now we are delaying the preparation of the Independent Electoral Commission. The IEC need to conduct voter education in our rural and urban areas. I am saying all these things because I am worried about the state of preparedness of the Electoral Commission we need to give them enough time. We also call upon the Department of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and Home Affairs to co-operate and finalise this matter as a matter of argents if the electoral law has to go through Justice and Home Affairs. I have taken up the matter with the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and constitutional Development; we will be calling the two Ministers to explain the way forward in relation to this act.
ID Campaign
Call on the department of Home Affairs to intensify and mobilise people to apply for identify documents and the department to come up with a strategy of distribution of identity documents. We call upon the Government to assist unemployed and poor people who cannot afford to pay for identity photos. The R15 Million allocated for the campaign is not enough and we call upon treasury to increase this allocation. I appeal to all stakeholders, our people in general to help those of our people who do not have the means to reach home Affairs offices for one reason or another. I wish to thank members of Parliament for the role that they are playing in their respective constituencies in helping people who do not have ID's and birth certificas.
Migration issues Migration has been part of humanity from time immemorial. In a modern globalising world, which seeks to insulate us from the rest of the world. The Immigration Act that we passed last year was an honest attempt on our part to deal with the thorny issues of migration from a progressive point of view and be human rights oriented piece of legislation. The Immigration Act as it stands today is not a perfect product but for now it is something, which we can live with. We will take it upon ourselves to monitor the implementation of this act and recommend necessary amendment if the need arises.
The issue of Immigration Regulations has become another hot potato. Not less than three times the Department of Home Affairs has been taken to court about the process of regulations. The Portfolio Committee has. been arguing with the Department that section 7.1 of the Immigration Act states categorically clear the process in which the regulations suppose to be handled. On three occasions the Department has lost the court battle. I would rather appeal to the Honourable Minister of Home Affairs to instruct the Department to withdraw the appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court, because the department is now complying with the act, there is no need to continue with the applies as this will be a waste of time and Government resources. South Africans are being accused of being xenophobic. This is levelled against us because of the way we treat foreign citizens in our country. The recent court battles does not help the situation at all. Over the last twelve months there has been three reported deaths in the Lindela detention centre. This kind of a situation cannot be allowed. We call upon the Department to investigate the causes of these deaths and report the findings to parliament.
Today the Minister of Home Affairs has inaugurated the immigration board as stipulated by the Immigration Act 2002. This is a further indication that the Minister is prepared to comply with the law, it is this understanding that I make the call and the appeal that the Minister to instruct the Department of Home Affairs to withdraw the appeals in the Supreme Court of Appeals and the Constitutional Court.
Government Printing works
Madam Speaker the staff at the Government Printing works is depleted. There is a total lack of capacity in that office. That has led to a total collapse in management and financial controls. Perhaps due to lack of experience some members of staff in the Printing works have overlooked the rules that outline how certain issues are supposed to be handled. I am raising this issue because of the report of the Auditor general.
The Auditor General {AG} highlight two important areas within the government Printing works. The first one is the problem of proper financial controls relating to debt collection. This is a result of the post that are vacant in the Department.
The second point is relating to operating an overdraft facility without prior approval from the Treasury Department. The criminals will be quick to identify this weakness and exploit it to the fullest at the earliest convenient time for them. We there for call upon the minister to quickly advertise the vacant posts and have suitable candidates occupy these posts. We understand that there is a backlog of staff shortage of about 1900 and call upon the Department that out of the 300 it should focus itself upon the areas, which are strategic.
Batho-Pele The department of Home Affairs should intensify staff training on Batho-Pele as this is one of the areas that reflect quite negative on the department in particular in rural areas; there is a need to train our staff on Public relation at all levels of this department.
If this is not address services excellency in Home Affairs will remain but a paper dream and more over service delivery improvement throughout Government will remain elusive. I hope that funds that are allocated for capacity building will be used for that purpose.
Legislation
It is critical that the department of Home Affairs should come up with clear time frames on passing of Legislation since the beginning of this year all bills that were to be amended before June were not passed. We need to beef up this section in the Department and deal with the problems that delays the passing of legislation. The Role of Stake Holders
There is a need to have a clear strategic plan and Government position with regard to the role of traditional leaders and Municipalities doing Home Affairs work at local level as Home Affairs it is a National Competency required by the Constitution of this country, and it must be clearly defined what will be the role of each structure and the accountability processes must be clearly stated. This needs to be addresses as this is beginning to create problems in other areas.
I want to thank members of the Portfolio Committee of Home Affairs, the Minister Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Deputy Minster Mapisa-Nqakula and newly appointed director general of Home Affairs, Berry Gilder the all officials of the department for our interaction on various matters.
The Portfolio Committee sees its role as that one of complementing the work of the Minister and the Department in discharging their duties.
I want to thank the Minister Of Home Affairs Dr. Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Deputy Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and the newly appointed Director General and officials of the Department finally Members of the Portfolio Committee.
I thank you all.