11 June 2004
Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Minister, Honourable Deputy Minister, and Members of the House: I would like to dedicate my speech to the memory of the late Prof. Mbadi. Prof. Mbadi represented the ANC in this House and was to me a father figure and mentor for who service to the people was a way of living. Hamba Kahle Prof.
This year we celebrate the tenth anniversary of our democracy. In so doing it is also apt that we look back at where we come from, where we are before we can look at where we are going. Speaker after speaker has indicated the many challenges that lie ahead for the Department of Home Affairs. The Minister has eloquently expressed her programme for transformation within the Department of Home Affairs. It is a programme that we strongly support and actively would engage in both as members of this House and as ordinary citizens. While the rest of the country and more specifically various Government Departments are celebrating ten years of democracy and have made great strides in transformation we are in fact today celebrating the birth of the Department of Home Affairs into our democracy. There are few of the issues that Members raised here today that during at least the past five years have not come up repeatedly in budget debates of the Department of Home Affairs or special debates involving the business of the department. From the side of the ANC we are glad to say that we believe that not only are the plans in place but the political will is also there to indeed ensure a better Home Affairs for all. Chairperson I believe it is important for this House and for the Department of Home Affairs that we acknowledge where the Department is at, at this point in time. The reason for that being that we need to, when we come back next year, measure the Department against where it was at this year. We can not measure it against other Departments because of the delayed start in transforming the Department of Home Affairs. This is important so as to enable us to make an accurate evaluation of the progress that was made when we engage with the issue this time next year. However, the department will not have the luxury of 10 years to play catch up, it will have to excel the process and reach the next level as a matter of urgency.
We need to move away from a Department that was frustrating its clients, to one that provides quick, professional and accurate service. We need to rid the Department of its outmoded systems and replace it with modern, state of the art technology. But, since it is also true that process drives systems it is inevitable that the time consuming, labour intensive processes will have to make way for user friendly, easy accessible and speedily deliverable, accurate products. Those processes can however, not drive themselves. And, in the end it is the people that staff the Department of Home Affairs that will have to become the agents of transformation within the Department. They should take the same pride in their work whether they sit in a mobile office in Qumbu, or in the head office in Pretoria. The pride with which they do their work and the dignity with which they serve the people of South Africa should be present in both these offices and should be the driving force in making the Department of Home Affairs a better Department for all.
The Department must no longer carry the burden as the leader in corruption amongst Government Departments. It must no longer, to its main clients, the citizens of South Africa, be a punishment to have to do business with the Department. As they enter any office of the Department they must feel pride in the way business is conducted within an office, but also in the dignified manner in which a client of the Department is treated. The Department of Home Affairs is the face of government to its citizens. It is the department that we deal with from the day that we are born till the day of our death.
It is the first board of call in our effort to address poverty in so far as it is Home affairs that issue the documentation that is required by law in order to be able to apply for social grants.
Chairperson the ANC believes that this budget is indeed a transformation budget. We say this not because we believe that it is adequate in terms of the financial allocation. The current need in capital expenditure is simply too great for that. We say it, because it is clear in the division of the budget and in the priorities of the relevant programmes, that the budget is aimed at those areas and programmes that will have the greatest impact in achieving overall transformation of the department.
Chairperson, after the elections the ANC came back with an overwhelming renewed mandate by the people of South Africa. Amongst other things we have received that mandate on the basis of a contract with the people. This is also true in the case of the Department of Home Affairs. Speakers have outlined the obligations of the Department of Home Affairs in this contract. We also need to look at the obligations of the people towards the Department. Those who fraudulently sell or use our national identification documents live amongst us. We should not allow them to get away with it and should co-operate with the relevant authorities in exposing and apprehending them. We should all get actively involved in assisting those in our communities, especially the elderly in obtaining their ID documents. As mothers and fathers, older brothers and sisters, we should encourage young people to apply as soon as they may, for their ID documents and then to proactively register as a voter. We must involve ourselves in educating young girls about illegal marriages and the harm that it is doing towards our country and her people. In our dealings with the Department we should when we come across bad service, not go home and complain in our kitchens or amongst our friends and family about it, but we should take it up within the Department. And, if at first we are not satisfied, we should have the commitment to follow it through to its conclusion. Equally important, we must ensure that when we receive exceptional service, that we also bring our appreciation under the attention of the relevant people. Sometimes, on its own, a simple warm and honest "thank you" can boost the moral and carry an official through the day.
In the spirit of the "People's contract" the ANC would like to make the following suggestions to the Minister and Deputy Minister for consideration. We suggest that officials of Home Affairs, at least those that work directly with the public, should be wearing name tags to identify themselves. We believe that this will install a sense of personal responsibility and will assist members of the public to identify whom they are dealing with should a problem arise. A further suggestion from our side is that consideration be given towards a corporate dress for officials who work with the public. It will contribute towards a corporate identity within the Department and will install a feeling of belonging and teamwork. Furthermore it will make it easier for the public to identify officials of the Department and cut out the occurrence of bogy officials on the floor charge people for their so-called services. Our last suggestion is the implementation of a quality control mechanism within the Department. An extremely high percentage of time and money is lost through either the loss of documentation or the wrong information ending up on final documentation. If a system of some sort can be implemented that from first point of contact the official dealing with an application puts down their unique code. As the process unfolds at each stage there is provision for the official responsible for that part of the process to identify him or herself by providing a unique code. Should a problem now arise it would be possible to trace it back right to the point of the official who accepted the form to the one that have signed of on the final product. In that way it would be possible to identify trends and patterns and to take corrective measurements at those weak connections in the chain. However it also makes it possible to identify your strong points and to award those.
Chair; allow me to congratulate the Minister and the Deputy Minister in their appointments. Be assured of our support, but also our vigilant interest in the Department. I am looking forward to come back in a year's time and to participate in a debate where we talk about progress that has been made.
I thank you.