Date: 11/06/2004
Source: Ministry of Home Affairs
Title: M Gigaba: Home Affairs Dept Budget Vote 2004/2005
ADDRESS BY MALUSI GIGABA, DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS, AT HOME AFFAIRS BUDGET VOTE, Cape Town, 11 June 2004
Honourable Madam Deputy President,
Honourable Minister, NN Mapisa-Nqakula,
Honourable Members,
Director General and Senior Managers of the Department
We are privileged and delighted to have to table this Budget Vote before this Extended Public Committee. This Budget seeks to present to you our combat plans to confront the accumulated and stubborn challenges of our past.
What it communicates is that the Department of Home Affairs has entered a new phase, of integrated planning and implementation of programmes, during which it shall make an earnest endeavour to improve the quality of the services it offers to both the people of South Africa and to our foreign clients.
We are determined as this Department that we should make a decisive contribution towards both the restoration of the dignity and humanity of the majority, as well as the people's contract for a New South Africa and the World. Our Turnaround Strategy and Strategic Plan create the real possibility that we can comprehensively deal with these intractable challenges that have continued to mar the image of our department a decade after the advent of democracy, in order to comply with the government's vision of providing quality service delivery to our people, guided by the perspective of "Batho Pele".
Accordingly, we shall seek to create a new institutional culture, new values and ethos in order to portray the Department of Home Affairs as a caring department committed to quality service and loyal both to the people of SA and the new dispensation.
Above all else, we shall both invest in and rely on our people, through training and re-training, and through the recruitment of 350 young interns in July in order to buttress our human capital.
The training and re-training will not exclude senior managers, many of whom need to develop new management and leadership skills in a democratic milieu. It is possible to do all these things, indeed to turn the Department of Home Affairs around, precisely because most of the people in our Department have accepted that change is required.
In this regard, we shall act with urgency during the current financial term to fill up many of the vacancies, within our resources capacity, that exist at different levels of the Department. This will involve closing the vacancies at the Government Printing Works, the IT department, and the Films and Publications Board that impede our capacity to function at optimum levels.
We will try to bring to the closure the process to convert the Government Printing Works into a state-owned enterprise in order to address the skills and resources challenges that it faces. The Inter-Departmental Task Team tasked with the facilitation of this decision has finalised the draft Business Plan, and shall soon be taken through the Departmental and finally the Cabinet processes for conclusion.
For long, the Government Printing Works has been unable to recruit and retain qualified artisans. There have been crucial vacancies that remained unfilled, which has created management and accounting problems, including problems of fraud. We shall, however, soon finalise the appointment of the CEO of the GPW, and other senior managers.
Quite soon, we shall also initialise the process to appoint additional Examiners, Chief Examiners, and members of the Review Board of the Films and Publications Board, and fill the leadership vacancies both on the Films and Publications Board, as well as the Review Board. As well as its regular work of, amongst others, classifying films and publications, the Films and Publications Board must assist South Africa deal with the challenges posed by child pornography.
In this regard, we have already re-activated the Task Team on Child Pornography, composed of some of the most passionate South Africans, experts in their fields, who care deeply and dearly about the happiness, safety and security of the children, advising the Deputy Minister on matters of combating this crime.
We shall, in due course, expand this Task Team and make it more representative. Child pornography constitutes the worst violation of the childhood, the innocence and the rights of the children. It takes away their future and threatens the moral values and ethos of upon which future societies must be built. What is sad about it is that both the crime and the violation of the child continues beyond the act of the physical abuse of the child, it continues to live on the wires, the videos and computer disks as it is circulated from one person or groups of people to the next.
Some sad and cold facts about this matter include:
* The number of the paedophilia Web sites has shot up by 70% in 2003 in the United States, and there are tens of thousands of child pornographic photos exchanging addresses and sites on the Internet daily,
* Child pornography is now conducted as a multi-billion dollar business by organised crime syndicates,
* The sweetest teacher next door, the local preacher, police man, your child's psychologist or another "decent" person could very well be involved in this heinous crime, and
* Child pornography, unlike other crimes, exists very much in the oblivion of society, where it will not be easily detected; the fact that you do not know about it does not mean it is not happening.
These facts are stated here not to frighten you, or to exaggerate a mere fabrication; these problems already exist in South Africa, with many cases of people apprehended with large quantities of child pornographic materials. It was in recognition of these facts, and the seriousness of this matter, that the Films and Publications Board established a public "hotline" to report cases of child pornography on the Internet. What remains outstanding with regard to the "hotline" is the installation of the equipment so that it is up on 1 July 2004.
We shall also launch an all-encompassing campaign against child pornography, involving a broad range of stakeholders, including government, MPs, NGOs, internet service providers, media institutions, the religious community, business, labour, schools and celebrities, to raise the awareness of the teachers, the parents and learners about this matter, to rally the support and participation of the internet service providers so that we are able to assist the safety and security, as well as justice, agencies to nip this problem.
Deputy Speaker.
The Department of Home Affairs is fraught with problems, which have betrayed, dramatically, the gross deficiencies in our information systems. We shall, therefore in that regard, continue to pay serious attention to the information systems, and immediately to fill some senior posts in the IT branch. We seek to develop an integrated information system to make our work smart and efficient in order to harness information technology for more effective service delivery and to dramatically enhance the integrity of our systems.
In October 2003, we adopted an IT Revolution, which seeks to:
* ensure the full computerisation of all our offices, at home and abroad, within five years;
* upgrade our IT infrastructure to ensure full data connectivity of all our offices, capable of handling increased data traffic, including use of satellite and other communications technology for remote areas and mobile units;
* upgrade HANIS into an integrated biometric database of all people the Department deals with - citizens, residents, refugees, illegal foreigners - and incorporating our Population Register, Movement Control System, Visa System, Refugees database and Illegal foreigners database;
* introduce the Integrated Client Service Consoles (ICSCs) at all our offices at home and abroad (including mobile units) within three years - enabling electronic capture of applications, fingerprints, photographs and supporting documentation;
* extend our Electronic Document Management and Workflow System to enable electronic storage of documentation as well as transmission and processing of applications; and
* fully computerise all our internal business systems within five years.
During this MTEF period and beyond, we have recorded the following progress:
* HANIS was populated with two million records, already enabling us to detect duplicate identities, more than one person with the same ID number, as well as foreigners attempting to apply for IDs through fraudulent late registration of birth;
* Within the next three months we will begin the back record conversion into HANIS of 30 million paper-based records. This will be completed within 18 to 24 months and will enable the online verification of the identity of people, and dramatically improve our ability to detect duplicate identities and attempts to gain citizenship fraudulently;
* Within this financial year we will complete the procurement process for the new 'smart' ID card and begin the issuing of these cards to over 30 million citizens within a year, issuing six million cards per year over a further five years. In this financial year we will be piloting the new ID card by issuing smart cards to over 30,000 refugees;
* We will introduce a 'smart' passport within two years, ensuring maximum security of our passports for foreign travel, as well as enabling the fast-tracking of citizens at our Ports of Entry; and
* We will have scanned over 30 million paper birth, marriage and death records into our Electronic Document Management system by March 2006, enabling speedy provision to clients of unabridged birth, marriage and death certificates.
The following quick wins will be achieved in this financial year:
* The introduction of ICS Consoles at our five Refugee Reception Offices around the country, enabling speedy processing and reliable records of asylum seekers and refugees;
* The introduction of ICS Consoles at Lindela, enabling proper record-keeping and management of illegal foreigners;
* The introduction of ICS Consoles at selected hospitals and morgues to enable electronic registration of births and deaths;
* The introduction of ICS Consoles in 67 mobile units, implying that many or our rural clients will have access to higher technology before our urban clients;
* The introduction of the smart ID card for refugees;
* An electronic tracking and tracing system for all applications, allowing quick tracing of where applications are in the process; and
* The introduction of a unique permanent ID number linked to a fingerprint that does not change when status changes, preventing the fraudulent changing of identity.
Working with the SITA, we shall improve our capacity to deliver on our IT commitments. In future, because of these bold interventions, the Department of Home Affairs will be known for its client-focused and user-friendly ethos; it will play a crucial role in fighting crime, raising the dignity of our people and stimulating economic development. At the same time, we will continue to support the Chapter 9 institutions falling under our Department, to ensure that they are able to execute their mandate.
First, we must convey a collective word of gratitude to the IEC for the sterling they have done over the past decade, including during the past general elections, to lend integrity to our democracy and democratic systems and institutions, and for making our electoral process and democracy a world marvel, one of our greatest contributions and exhibitions to the global community.
We had earlier informed the Portfolio Committee that we will seek, for practical purposes, an amendment to the Electoral Commission Act of 1996. Accordingly, the Portfolio Committee has considered the matter. We shall continue to engage the IEC on the matters that have to do with its operations, to continue to seek ways to assist it to deliver to South Africans "free and fair elections in the most efficient and cost-effective manner", in a manner that ensconces democracy.
Honourable Members are aware that the government had established an Electoral Task Team, chaired by Dr. F. van Zyl Slabbert, to draft legislation for an electoral system for the national and provincial elections, whose report was received early last year. We intend to take forward the process to look at the Task Team Report, and shall, once we have done so, return to Parliament and approach Cabinet with our recommendations. The journey we have, as a Department, embarked upon is difficult, but certain! Our Department is determined itself to occupy its rightful place and play its role in the people's contract to build a better South Africa and a better World.
The Minister and the Deputy Minister shall provide hands-on leadership to the Department, to end the era of leadership by remote control. Finally, I wish to thank the Minister, the Director General, the Senior Management and staff, the Chairperson and Members of the Portfolio Committee for their cooperation and sterling work thus far.
I thank you!
Issued by: Ministry of Home Affairs
11 June 2004
Source: Department of Home Affairs (http://www.home-affairs.gov.za)
Source: Ministry of Home Affairs
Title: M Gigaba: Home Affairs Dept Budget Vote 2004/2005
ADDRESS BY MALUSI GIGABA, DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS, AT HOME AFFAIRS BUDGET VOTE, Cape Town, 11 June 2004
Honourable Madam Deputy President,
Honourable Minister, NN Mapisa-Nqakula,
Honourable Members,
Director General and Senior Managers of the Department
We are privileged and delighted to have to table this Budget Vote before this Extended Public Committee. This Budget seeks to present to you our combat plans to confront the accumulated and stubborn challenges of our past.
What it communicates is that the Department of Home Affairs has entered a new phase, of integrated planning and implementation of programmes, during which it shall make an earnest endeavour to improve the quality of the services it offers to both the people of South Africa and to our foreign clients.
We are determined as this Department that we should make a decisive contribution towards both the restoration of the dignity and humanity of the majority, as well as the people's contract for a New South Africa and the World. Our Turnaround Strategy and Strategic Plan create the real possibility that we can comprehensively deal with these intractable challenges that have continued to mar the image of our department a decade after the advent of democracy, in order to comply with the government's vision of providing quality service delivery to our people, guided by the perspective of "Batho Pele".
Accordingly, we shall seek to create a new institutional culture, new values and ethos in order to portray the Department of Home Affairs as a caring department committed to quality service and loyal both to the people of SA and the new dispensation.
Above all else, we shall both invest in and rely on our people, through training and re-training, and through the recruitment of 350 young interns in July in order to buttress our human capital.
The training and re-training will not exclude senior managers, many of whom need to develop new management and leadership skills in a democratic milieu. It is possible to do all these things, indeed to turn the Department of Home Affairs around, precisely because most of the people in our Department have accepted that change is required.
In this regard, we shall act with urgency during the current financial term to fill up many of the vacancies, within our resources capacity, that exist at different levels of the Department. This will involve closing the vacancies at the Government Printing Works, the IT department, and the Films and Publications Board that impede our capacity to function at optimum levels.
We will try to bring to the closure the process to convert the Government Printing Works into a state-owned enterprise in order to address the skills and resources challenges that it faces. The Inter-Departmental Task Team tasked with the facilitation of this decision has finalised the draft Business Plan, and shall soon be taken through the Departmental and finally the Cabinet processes for conclusion.
For long, the Government Printing Works has been unable to recruit and retain qualified artisans. There have been crucial vacancies that remained unfilled, which has created management and accounting problems, including problems of fraud. We shall, however, soon finalise the appointment of the CEO of the GPW, and other senior managers.
Quite soon, we shall also initialise the process to appoint additional Examiners, Chief Examiners, and members of the Review Board of the Films and Publications Board, and fill the leadership vacancies both on the Films and Publications Board, as well as the Review Board. As well as its regular work of, amongst others, classifying films and publications, the Films and Publications Board must assist South Africa deal with the challenges posed by child pornography.
In this regard, we have already re-activated the Task Team on Child Pornography, composed of some of the most passionate South Africans, experts in their fields, who care deeply and dearly about the happiness, safety and security of the children, advising the Deputy Minister on matters of combating this crime.
We shall, in due course, expand this Task Team and make it more representative. Child pornography constitutes the worst violation of the childhood, the innocence and the rights of the children. It takes away their future and threatens the moral values and ethos of upon which future societies must be built. What is sad about it is that both the crime and the violation of the child continues beyond the act of the physical abuse of the child, it continues to live on the wires, the videos and computer disks as it is circulated from one person or groups of people to the next.
Some sad and cold facts about this matter include:
* The number of the paedophilia Web sites has shot up by 70% in 2003 in the United States, and there are tens of thousands of child pornographic photos exchanging addresses and sites on the Internet daily,
* Child pornography is now conducted as a multi-billion dollar business by organised crime syndicates,
* The sweetest teacher next door, the local preacher, police man, your child's psychologist or another "decent" person could very well be involved in this heinous crime, and
* Child pornography, unlike other crimes, exists very much in the oblivion of society, where it will not be easily detected; the fact that you do not know about it does not mean it is not happening.
These facts are stated here not to frighten you, or to exaggerate a mere fabrication; these problems already exist in South Africa, with many cases of people apprehended with large quantities of child pornographic materials. It was in recognition of these facts, and the seriousness of this matter, that the Films and Publications Board established a public "hotline" to report cases of child pornography on the Internet. What remains outstanding with regard to the "hotline" is the installation of the equipment so that it is up on 1 July 2004.
We shall also launch an all-encompassing campaign against child pornography, involving a broad range of stakeholders, including government, MPs, NGOs, internet service providers, media institutions, the religious community, business, labour, schools and celebrities, to raise the awareness of the teachers, the parents and learners about this matter, to rally the support and participation of the internet service providers so that we are able to assist the safety and security, as well as justice, agencies to nip this problem.
Deputy Speaker.
The Department of Home Affairs is fraught with problems, which have betrayed, dramatically, the gross deficiencies in our information systems. We shall, therefore in that regard, continue to pay serious attention to the information systems, and immediately to fill some senior posts in the IT branch. We seek to develop an integrated information system to make our work smart and efficient in order to harness information technology for more effective service delivery and to dramatically enhance the integrity of our systems.
In October 2003, we adopted an IT Revolution, which seeks to:
* ensure the full computerisation of all our offices, at home and abroad, within five years;
* upgrade our IT infrastructure to ensure full data connectivity of all our offices, capable of handling increased data traffic, including use of satellite and other communications technology for remote areas and mobile units;
* upgrade HANIS into an integrated biometric database of all people the Department deals with - citizens, residents, refugees, illegal foreigners - and incorporating our Population Register, Movement Control System, Visa System, Refugees database and Illegal foreigners database;
* introduce the Integrated Client Service Consoles (ICSCs) at all our offices at home and abroad (including mobile units) within three years - enabling electronic capture of applications, fingerprints, photographs and supporting documentation;
* extend our Electronic Document Management and Workflow System to enable electronic storage of documentation as well as transmission and processing of applications; and
* fully computerise all our internal business systems within five years.
During this MTEF period and beyond, we have recorded the following progress:
* HANIS was populated with two million records, already enabling us to detect duplicate identities, more than one person with the same ID number, as well as foreigners attempting to apply for IDs through fraudulent late registration of birth;
* Within the next three months we will begin the back record conversion into HANIS of 30 million paper-based records. This will be completed within 18 to 24 months and will enable the online verification of the identity of people, and dramatically improve our ability to detect duplicate identities and attempts to gain citizenship fraudulently;
* Within this financial year we will complete the procurement process for the new 'smart' ID card and begin the issuing of these cards to over 30 million citizens within a year, issuing six million cards per year over a further five years. In this financial year we will be piloting the new ID card by issuing smart cards to over 30,000 refugees;
* We will introduce a 'smart' passport within two years, ensuring maximum security of our passports for foreign travel, as well as enabling the fast-tracking of citizens at our Ports of Entry; and
* We will have scanned over 30 million paper birth, marriage and death records into our Electronic Document Management system by March 2006, enabling speedy provision to clients of unabridged birth, marriage and death certificates.
The following quick wins will be achieved in this financial year:
* The introduction of ICS Consoles at our five Refugee Reception Offices around the country, enabling speedy processing and reliable records of asylum seekers and refugees;
* The introduction of ICS Consoles at Lindela, enabling proper record-keeping and management of illegal foreigners;
* The introduction of ICS Consoles at selected hospitals and morgues to enable electronic registration of births and deaths;
* The introduction of ICS Consoles in 67 mobile units, implying that many or our rural clients will have access to higher technology before our urban clients;
* The introduction of the smart ID card for refugees;
* An electronic tracking and tracing system for all applications, allowing quick tracing of where applications are in the process; and
* The introduction of a unique permanent ID number linked to a fingerprint that does not change when status changes, preventing the fraudulent changing of identity.
Working with the SITA, we shall improve our capacity to deliver on our IT commitments. In future, because of these bold interventions, the Department of Home Affairs will be known for its client-focused and user-friendly ethos; it will play a crucial role in fighting crime, raising the dignity of our people and stimulating economic development. At the same time, we will continue to support the Chapter 9 institutions falling under our Department, to ensure that they are able to execute their mandate.
First, we must convey a collective word of gratitude to the IEC for the sterling they have done over the past decade, including during the past general elections, to lend integrity to our democracy and democratic systems and institutions, and for making our electoral process and democracy a world marvel, one of our greatest contributions and exhibitions to the global community.
We had earlier informed the Portfolio Committee that we will seek, for practical purposes, an amendment to the Electoral Commission Act of 1996. Accordingly, the Portfolio Committee has considered the matter. We shall continue to engage the IEC on the matters that have to do with its operations, to continue to seek ways to assist it to deliver to South Africans "free and fair elections in the most efficient and cost-effective manner", in a manner that ensconces democracy.
Honourable Members are aware that the government had established an Electoral Task Team, chaired by Dr. F. van Zyl Slabbert, to draft legislation for an electoral system for the national and provincial elections, whose report was received early last year. We intend to take forward the process to look at the Task Team Report, and shall, once we have done so, return to Parliament and approach Cabinet with our recommendations. The journey we have, as a Department, embarked upon is difficult, but certain! Our Department is determined itself to occupy its rightful place and play its role in the people's contract to build a better South Africa and a better World.
The Minister and the Deputy Minister shall provide hands-on leadership to the Department, to end the era of leadership by remote control. Finally, I wish to thank the Minister, the Director General, the Senior Management and staff, the Chairperson and Members of the Portfolio Committee for their cooperation and sterling work thus far.
I thank you!
Issued by: Ministry of Home Affairs
11 June 2004
Source: Department of Home Affairs (http://www.home-affairs.gov.za)
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