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A reply to a Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary question has revealed that the number of sick days taken by Department of Home Affairs employees has trebled since the Zuma administration took office.

The reply reveals:

In the period of April 2008 to March 2009, a total of 27 746 sick days were taken by 6 097 employees. This equates to an average of 2 312 sick days per month.
In the five month period of 1 April 2009 to 31 August 2009, which includes the first four months of the new administration, a total of 34 647 sick days have already been taken - averaging 6 929 sick days per month. This includes an enormous, and as yet unexplained, increase in sick days taken during June 2009, which presumably had a severe effect on Home Affairs offices for the remainder of 2009.

This all means that we are on course to see at least a trebling of the number of sick days taken by Home Affairs officials this year.

We also need to bear in mind that the December period is usually responsible for the highest number of sick days (last year 9998 sick days were taken during December, as opposed to an average of 1 613 in the other eleven months). So the December figures usually push up the yearly figure further still, implying that the yearly outlook will be even worse than a threefold increase.

I will present these latest figures to the portfolio committee, and I will ask that the minister is called before the committee to explain the serious increases in 2009, including the particularly sharp rise in June 2009. I will ask that she explains what action is being taken to address this problem.

Equally concerning is that a separate parliamentary reply has highlighted ongoing serious staffing shortages in the Department. According to the minister: "A total of 693 posts have been identified as critical for filling before the end of the 2009/10 financial year."

It is therefore clear that the Department of Home Affairs is not only the facing rampant absenteeism, but has also still yet to resolve the huge vacancy issues. Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma appears not to be concerned about the increase in sick days, as she says that: "No action has been taken against these officials, as the sick leave taken was duly authorised." While that may be the case, there is a deeper problem here, one which most likely exists in the organisational culture and is causing a major lack of staff morale. The minister should not be dismissing this issue with such lack of concern. A trebling of sick days taken is not ‘business as usual' - it is indicative of a department facing a very serious problem.

On the state of staff shortages the minister has responded to a separate question, also received back in the last week from the Department, by saying that 38 Senior Management Services (SMS) posts are currently filled by acting managers. What is quite astonishing is that some of these officials have been working in "acting" capacities in their positions since as far back as August 2004 - as appears to be the case with the Chief Director for Permits in the Immigration Services Division. Again, this is the hallmark of serious bureaucratic malaise and a Department with no coherent strategy to resolve its problems.

Senior Management Services posts include significant positions like Deputy Directors-General, Directors, Chief Directors, Regional Managers and Policy and Strategy Heads. These positions effect key areas like human resources, permits and port control, Asylum Seekers Management, Refugee Appeal Board and Financial Administration.

Finally, in a fourth question that we have received back from the Department, it was revealed that ongoing understaffing of Home Affairs officials on duty at South African's airports has essentially become the every day norm. The following demonstrates what the department considers to be the actual (a) and optimal (b) number of officials of her department on duty:

O. R Tambo International Airport: 233 out of 276 officials needed (84%)
Pilanesburg International Airport (Immigration services rendered between 07:00 and 19:00): 4 out of 19 officials needed (21%)
Gateway Airport: 3 out of 7 officials (42%)
Cape Town International Airport: 81 out of 87 officials (93%)
Durban International Airport: 7 out of 16 officials (43%)
Kruger / Mpumalanga Airport: 14 out of 18 officials (77%)
Upington Airport, Bloemfontein International Airport, Port Elizabeth Airport: No staff employed. Officials from the Regional Offices are on standby.

In other words, in three of six airports where permanent staff are employed, the Department employs less than half of the number of staff that it needs to employ. Although these also happen to disproportionately effect the smallest airports, it is a situation that warrants rectifying, and I will ask the minister to explain what is being done to ensure that sufficient Home Affairs staff will be available at these airports at all times. It is also notable that the department could not provide details as to whether there was any occurrence in the past twelve months where passengers did not go through the required checks as a result of an insufficient number of Home Affairs officials. This question was asked as members of the public reported a situation where Home Affairs officials were not on duty when they passed through passport control.

The problems effecting the Home Affairs department are crippling a very vital public service with numerous consequences of understaffing effecting not only South Africans, but asylum seekers, and tourists. The DA wants evidence from the minister that these issues are being met head-on.

Copies of the four parliamentary replies referenced in this statement are available upon request.