Date: 19/05/2003
Source: Ministry of Home Affairs
Title: Mapisa-Nqakula: Home Affairs Dept Budget Vote 2003/2004
BUDGET VOTE SPEECH - BUDGET FOUR: DEPARTMENT OF HOME AFFAIRS, PRESENTED BY THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS, MS NOSIVIWE MAPISA-NQAKULA, National Assembly, Cape Town, 19 May 2003
Madam Speaker
Hon Minister of Home Affairs, Dr MG Buthelezi
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee
Honourable Members
The Director-General and Senior Government
Officials
Friends
Two days ago we bade farewell to one of the foremost stalwarts of the struggle for the liberation of our people. We thought it fitting that on this day of presenting our budget vote to this House, we dedicate this occasion in honour of this servant of our people. Through his life Isithalwande Walter Sisulu taught us that it was possible to serve and to give to humanity even as an ordinary man who occupies no office of note in a government. With only a heart befitting a father of a nation, without a plush office and control of a budget totalling millions, he had made a lasting impression and set an example of true selflessness for his people. His own life, as if by destiny, had been intrinsically linked to that of the ANC, the movement to which he dedicated his whole self, for the love and patriotism he felt for his country. He had committed himself to the resolve of the South African problem and to the building of a nation united, democratic, non-sexist and devoid of poverty and hunger.
Allow me at this point, Hon Members, to congratulate Mr Barry Gilder on his appointment by Cabinet as the new Director-General of our department. His appointment, having timed by history to coincide with the period of mourning and celebrating the life of Walter Sisulu, should place on Mr Gilder the challenge to emulate this great leader who was the ultimate public servant. Sisulu understood and embraced the core values that should underpin our work as public servants: humility, honesty, good governance and a great sense of love for the people we serve. The public that we serve expect no less than this and as you take up your responsibilities we hope that this will be the value to which your leadership will direct all of us.
As we present this budget vote to this House today, we speak without fear of contradiction that at the time of his death, Tata Sisulu was a happy man who believed that this government is firmly on track towards achieving all of these things for which he fought. His rest will be an even more peaceful one in the knowledge that those of us in the leadership of this government have committed ourselves to go beyond the current gains that have been made in building a better country for all South Africans and for generations to come. And for as long as we hold true to this commitment, his legacy will prevail and will never perish.
Madam Speaker, it has been another twelve months since we last came to this distinguished House to present to you our plans for the previous financial year and we had requested your support in passing a budget that would realise those plans. As the Hon Minister has already started to do, we come back to you here to report on the progress we have registered towards the attainment of some of those plans.
The Department of Home Affairs has been undergoing several changes that have had impact in our operational, programmatic and legislative imperatives. I will try and address some of these and the relevance of their impact on the work that we are doing as a department.
At a structural level, the previous year has seen us grapple with the implementation of the restructuring process as dictated by the Resolutions 7 and 8 of the Public Service Collective Bargaining Council. As the entire public service moves towards the conclusion of this process, it has brought to the fore a few things that will require our urgent attention if we are to realise transformation priorities within the department. At the end of June when the resolution stops its effect, we will need to roll out our plan for thoroughgoing transformation within the department. This plan will have to ensure that our conceptualisation of transformation goes beyond just ensuring representativity and parity, but also strives to build a machinery that is efficient and effective and to position our human resource as an asset committed to serve society with diligence and care.
We have already been in discussion with our top managers and raised our concern that it is unacceptable for the department that operates in this era not to have a single female at the level above that that of a Director. As the department finalises our current establishment investigation and the restructuring process this matter will have to receive urgent attention.
As Honourable Members will understand, the process of implementing the new Immigration Act has not been an easy one and I believe that that this has been largely due to the fact that migration itself is an area of complexity and it generates conflicting interests across affected parties. We have a lot to learn from our own processes, however, and we will always strive to handle similar complexities much better should they arise in the future as we overhaul our policy regime. For its part, the implementation of the new Act is allowing us an opportunity to move away from an era when migration of foreigners into our country was regarded as a burden for the state as opposed to it being an opportunity for them to contribute to the rebuilding of our country alongside ourselves.
It is incumbent on South Africa as the leader of the AU and the NEPAD programme to prioritise Africa in our planning, in our policies and in the implementation of our programme. The Department of Home Affairs has a central role in the process of changing the general attitude that our country, in particular, holds about our continent. This will require a general reorientation of our work, particularly in the area of Immigration.
Madam Speaker, in this regard it also gives us great pleasure to report that government has become a significant partner in the efforts to educate our public about the dangers of xenophobia and to stem out the prejudice that result in ill-treatment of foreigners who come into our own country, specifically those from the rest of the African continent. It is important for the state to take responsibility to make the public aware that foreigners who come into our country are capable of integrating into our communities and help us in the reconstruction process. For those who are refugees, we should always remember that before they were forced to flee the familiar environments that have been their homes all their lives into unknown destinations, each one of those refugees had been a once a loving father, a devoted husband, a loved son, a wife and mother and that they are as ordinary and as human with normal fears, hopes and dreams just like each one of us.
We have also had an opportunity to participate in the discussions aimed at finalising the Protection Agenda for refugees all over the world during the UNHCR Exco held in Geneva at the end of last year. The Agenda itself places additional responsibility on member states to ensure improved protection of refugees that are within their borders.
In line with our understanding of this responsibility we are going to look at possible ways of improving the conditions of refugees in our country and to address the many problems that have been brought to our attention. I have already requested that we investigate the possibility of establishing a refugee centre for women refugees and their children. These centres will allow us to give special attention to protection issues affecting the most vulnerable categories of refugees in any society. Modelled along the lines of the Esperance Centre that is run by the Catholic Church here in Cape Town, the Centres will be able to look at issues such as skills training, health, counselling and the general development of women and children refugees. I must also recognise the presence in the gallery of the women who run the Esperance Centre for Women Refugees led by Ms Nzwaki Mtshengu.
Madam Speaker, at the beginning of the year Cabinet held its planning lekgotla intended at integrating different plans of departments into a common programme of government and to identify government priorities for the year. This new planning approach by government is aimed at ensuring that there is integrated service delivery, and seeks to avoid a situation where departments operate in isolation. Our own strategic planning session has recognised that it has become quite necessary for us as a department to focus on these priorities.
Government as whole has committed itself to move with speed with regard to the finalisation of the HANIS system and we are currently looking at plans for the rewrite of the National Population Register in order to improve its integrity. The rest of the priorities identified by the lekgotla will also form part of the focus of the department during the current year and these include enhancing the capacity of the department by addressing staff shortages, improving security arrangements for top security documents such as IDs, passports and permits, developing an operational procedure for border control and to address the corruption activities associated with ports of entry.
Honourable Members will remember that last year we had raised serious concerns about the number of South African children who are not registered and thus are unable to receive government services such as education, child support grants, healthcare and other services to which they are entitled. We have also lamented the greatly the fact that by not registering these children we are denying them their most fundamental right - that of having a name and identity that represents recognition of their existence as bona fide citizens with a claim to this beautiful country.
We are proud to come back and report that the officials in the department have taken heed of the call to seek these children and register them and that currently we have administered a huge dent in the problem of the registration of children. The department of social services has expressed to us their gratitude for making their work possible by providing enabling documentation that allowed them to make progress in the registration of the almost three million children who are outside the child grants system. As the Minister has reported earlier on, we must be doing something right.
The problem is, however, still far from being resolved. Not only is our challenge that of addressing the current backlog of unregistered children, but we should also put in place the best system that ensures that every child is registered at birth without exception, whether they are born at home, or at a health facility, whether in a marriage or through teenage pregnancy and whether their parents are homeless, rich or poor.
In order to meet this challenge, it will be necessary that we move with speed to enhance the capacity of our regional offices as the implementing arm for service delivery to be able to reach more people on the ground.
The African Union, launched here in South Africa last year, has now declared that the focus for the celebration of the Day of the African Child in June this year should be birth registration for all children in Africa. We have taken this declaration very seriously and are currently joining hands in partnership with the United Nations Children Fund (Unicef) for the implementation plans aimed at making this a reality. We are highly encouraged by the enthusiasm showed by agencies such as Unicef in providing some the resources necessary to address these issues.
Madam Speaker, the provision of IDs is one of the most important functions that we perform at Home Affairs, particularly because of the significance that these IDs have to the people of our country. Again, uTata Sisulu has provided us with an attitude to emulate. Whereas during the Defiance Campaign of the 50s, he led the people to burn their old dompasses, because they were tools that were used to oppress them, until his death, however, he had carried the new green book with pride and he believed that it provided him dignity and pride as a South African.
As we approach the general elections next year, we have a responsibility of ensuring that every deserving South African has an enabling document to allow them to exercise their hard-earned right to vote in the elections. With the scarce resources at our disposal, we have taken a decision to roll out this campaign as part of our core business of providing every citizen with an ID book, and the additional special allocation from Treasury should be used to bolster this operation. We have already been in consultation with relevant stakeholders including the IEC, school authorities and community leaders with regard to the roll out of this campaign. It is our intention that not a single South African must remain without an ID and that the department has a responsibility to allocate equitable resources based on need to all corners of the country to ensure that this happens.
We do understand that some of our people are unable to access these documentation due to the fees associated with these applications. We are currently making arrangements to ensure relief for some of the poor people who can't afford fees such as the cost of photographs. These arrangements will include approaching Treasury to allow us to seek partnership with the private sector regarding such assistance.
Madam Speaker, the Film and Publications Board is also funded from this budget and I should indicate that as the Ministry responsible for the Board we have been satisfied with the amount of work they have put into addressing their key mandates. The Board is responsible for control and regulation of films and publications intended for distribution or exhibition within the republic by means of classification or exemptions.
The Films and Publications Amendment Bill that the Hon Minister will introduce in this House during this current session is aimed at enhancing the capacity of the Board and law enforcement agencies to deal more effective with non compliance with the law, specifically with regard to the issue of combating child pornography images.
The Board is also currently involved in a schools Internet safety project aimed at educating school children and teachers about the responsible and safe usage of the Internet in schools.
Hon Members, we have also informed the House about the process of repositioning the Government Printing Works (GPW). The utility itself was established as centralised national printing works responsible for meeting the printing and stationery requirements of central government departments.
The current structural arrangements at the GPW have been a source for concern and cabinet recognised the need for its restructuring and repositioning. The Auditor-General has also raised additional concerns with regard to the finances and general administration of the utility. Amongst these had been the adverse audit opinion, the collection of monies from debtor departments and the writing off of stock. We are currently looking at possibility of conducting an external investigation regarding these and other cases.
We are having ongoing interactions that involve the Department of Public Enterprises and the Treasury in resolving some of these processes and finalisation of the restructuring process and we will report the progress to this House.
May I conclude by reaffirming our commitment to improving the general service delivery approach of our department and that we will from time to time come back to you to present our reports as required.
I thank you.
Issued by Ministry of Home Affairs
19 May 2003
Source: Ministry of Home Affairs
Title: Mapisa-Nqakula: Home Affairs Dept Budget Vote 2003/2004
BUDGET VOTE SPEECH - BUDGET FOUR: DEPARTMENT OF HOME AFFAIRS, PRESENTED BY THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS, MS NOSIVIWE MAPISA-NQAKULA, National Assembly, Cape Town, 19 May 2003
Madam Speaker
Hon Minister of Home Affairs, Dr MG Buthelezi
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee
Honourable Members
The Director-General and Senior Government
Officials
Friends
Two days ago we bade farewell to one of the foremost stalwarts of the struggle for the liberation of our people. We thought it fitting that on this day of presenting our budget vote to this House, we dedicate this occasion in honour of this servant of our people. Through his life Isithalwande Walter Sisulu taught us that it was possible to serve and to give to humanity even as an ordinary man who occupies no office of note in a government. With only a heart befitting a father of a nation, without a plush office and control of a budget totalling millions, he had made a lasting impression and set an example of true selflessness for his people. His own life, as if by destiny, had been intrinsically linked to that of the ANC, the movement to which he dedicated his whole self, for the love and patriotism he felt for his country. He had committed himself to the resolve of the South African problem and to the building of a nation united, democratic, non-sexist and devoid of poverty and hunger.
Allow me at this point, Hon Members, to congratulate Mr Barry Gilder on his appointment by Cabinet as the new Director-General of our department. His appointment, having timed by history to coincide with the period of mourning and celebrating the life of Walter Sisulu, should place on Mr Gilder the challenge to emulate this great leader who was the ultimate public servant. Sisulu understood and embraced the core values that should underpin our work as public servants: humility, honesty, good governance and a great sense of love for the people we serve. The public that we serve expect no less than this and as you take up your responsibilities we hope that this will be the value to which your leadership will direct all of us.
As we present this budget vote to this House today, we speak without fear of contradiction that at the time of his death, Tata Sisulu was a happy man who believed that this government is firmly on track towards achieving all of these things for which he fought. His rest will be an even more peaceful one in the knowledge that those of us in the leadership of this government have committed ourselves to go beyond the current gains that have been made in building a better country for all South Africans and for generations to come. And for as long as we hold true to this commitment, his legacy will prevail and will never perish.
Madam Speaker, it has been another twelve months since we last came to this distinguished House to present to you our plans for the previous financial year and we had requested your support in passing a budget that would realise those plans. As the Hon Minister has already started to do, we come back to you here to report on the progress we have registered towards the attainment of some of those plans.
The Department of Home Affairs has been undergoing several changes that have had impact in our operational, programmatic and legislative imperatives. I will try and address some of these and the relevance of their impact on the work that we are doing as a department.
At a structural level, the previous year has seen us grapple with the implementation of the restructuring process as dictated by the Resolutions 7 and 8 of the Public Service Collective Bargaining Council. As the entire public service moves towards the conclusion of this process, it has brought to the fore a few things that will require our urgent attention if we are to realise transformation priorities within the department. At the end of June when the resolution stops its effect, we will need to roll out our plan for thoroughgoing transformation within the department. This plan will have to ensure that our conceptualisation of transformation goes beyond just ensuring representativity and parity, but also strives to build a machinery that is efficient and effective and to position our human resource as an asset committed to serve society with diligence and care.
We have already been in discussion with our top managers and raised our concern that it is unacceptable for the department that operates in this era not to have a single female at the level above that that of a Director. As the department finalises our current establishment investigation and the restructuring process this matter will have to receive urgent attention.
As Honourable Members will understand, the process of implementing the new Immigration Act has not been an easy one and I believe that that this has been largely due to the fact that migration itself is an area of complexity and it generates conflicting interests across affected parties. We have a lot to learn from our own processes, however, and we will always strive to handle similar complexities much better should they arise in the future as we overhaul our policy regime. For its part, the implementation of the new Act is allowing us an opportunity to move away from an era when migration of foreigners into our country was regarded as a burden for the state as opposed to it being an opportunity for them to contribute to the rebuilding of our country alongside ourselves.
It is incumbent on South Africa as the leader of the AU and the NEPAD programme to prioritise Africa in our planning, in our policies and in the implementation of our programme. The Department of Home Affairs has a central role in the process of changing the general attitude that our country, in particular, holds about our continent. This will require a general reorientation of our work, particularly in the area of Immigration.
Madam Speaker, in this regard it also gives us great pleasure to report that government has become a significant partner in the efforts to educate our public about the dangers of xenophobia and to stem out the prejudice that result in ill-treatment of foreigners who come into our own country, specifically those from the rest of the African continent. It is important for the state to take responsibility to make the public aware that foreigners who come into our country are capable of integrating into our communities and help us in the reconstruction process. For those who are refugees, we should always remember that before they were forced to flee the familiar environments that have been their homes all their lives into unknown destinations, each one of those refugees had been a once a loving father, a devoted husband, a loved son, a wife and mother and that they are as ordinary and as human with normal fears, hopes and dreams just like each one of us.
We have also had an opportunity to participate in the discussions aimed at finalising the Protection Agenda for refugees all over the world during the UNHCR Exco held in Geneva at the end of last year. The Agenda itself places additional responsibility on member states to ensure improved protection of refugees that are within their borders.
In line with our understanding of this responsibility we are going to look at possible ways of improving the conditions of refugees in our country and to address the many problems that have been brought to our attention. I have already requested that we investigate the possibility of establishing a refugee centre for women refugees and their children. These centres will allow us to give special attention to protection issues affecting the most vulnerable categories of refugees in any society. Modelled along the lines of the Esperance Centre that is run by the Catholic Church here in Cape Town, the Centres will be able to look at issues such as skills training, health, counselling and the general development of women and children refugees. I must also recognise the presence in the gallery of the women who run the Esperance Centre for Women Refugees led by Ms Nzwaki Mtshengu.
Madam Speaker, at the beginning of the year Cabinet held its planning lekgotla intended at integrating different plans of departments into a common programme of government and to identify government priorities for the year. This new planning approach by government is aimed at ensuring that there is integrated service delivery, and seeks to avoid a situation where departments operate in isolation. Our own strategic planning session has recognised that it has become quite necessary for us as a department to focus on these priorities.
Government as whole has committed itself to move with speed with regard to the finalisation of the HANIS system and we are currently looking at plans for the rewrite of the National Population Register in order to improve its integrity. The rest of the priorities identified by the lekgotla will also form part of the focus of the department during the current year and these include enhancing the capacity of the department by addressing staff shortages, improving security arrangements for top security documents such as IDs, passports and permits, developing an operational procedure for border control and to address the corruption activities associated with ports of entry.
Honourable Members will remember that last year we had raised serious concerns about the number of South African children who are not registered and thus are unable to receive government services such as education, child support grants, healthcare and other services to which they are entitled. We have also lamented the greatly the fact that by not registering these children we are denying them their most fundamental right - that of having a name and identity that represents recognition of their existence as bona fide citizens with a claim to this beautiful country.
We are proud to come back and report that the officials in the department have taken heed of the call to seek these children and register them and that currently we have administered a huge dent in the problem of the registration of children. The department of social services has expressed to us their gratitude for making their work possible by providing enabling documentation that allowed them to make progress in the registration of the almost three million children who are outside the child grants system. As the Minister has reported earlier on, we must be doing something right.
The problem is, however, still far from being resolved. Not only is our challenge that of addressing the current backlog of unregistered children, but we should also put in place the best system that ensures that every child is registered at birth without exception, whether they are born at home, or at a health facility, whether in a marriage or through teenage pregnancy and whether their parents are homeless, rich or poor.
In order to meet this challenge, it will be necessary that we move with speed to enhance the capacity of our regional offices as the implementing arm for service delivery to be able to reach more people on the ground.
The African Union, launched here in South Africa last year, has now declared that the focus for the celebration of the Day of the African Child in June this year should be birth registration for all children in Africa. We have taken this declaration very seriously and are currently joining hands in partnership with the United Nations Children Fund (Unicef) for the implementation plans aimed at making this a reality. We are highly encouraged by the enthusiasm showed by agencies such as Unicef in providing some the resources necessary to address these issues.
Madam Speaker, the provision of IDs is one of the most important functions that we perform at Home Affairs, particularly because of the significance that these IDs have to the people of our country. Again, uTata Sisulu has provided us with an attitude to emulate. Whereas during the Defiance Campaign of the 50s, he led the people to burn their old dompasses, because they were tools that were used to oppress them, until his death, however, he had carried the new green book with pride and he believed that it provided him dignity and pride as a South African.
As we approach the general elections next year, we have a responsibility of ensuring that every deserving South African has an enabling document to allow them to exercise their hard-earned right to vote in the elections. With the scarce resources at our disposal, we have taken a decision to roll out this campaign as part of our core business of providing every citizen with an ID book, and the additional special allocation from Treasury should be used to bolster this operation. We have already been in consultation with relevant stakeholders including the IEC, school authorities and community leaders with regard to the roll out of this campaign. It is our intention that not a single South African must remain without an ID and that the department has a responsibility to allocate equitable resources based on need to all corners of the country to ensure that this happens.
We do understand that some of our people are unable to access these documentation due to the fees associated with these applications. We are currently making arrangements to ensure relief for some of the poor people who can't afford fees such as the cost of photographs. These arrangements will include approaching Treasury to allow us to seek partnership with the private sector regarding such assistance.
Madam Speaker, the Film and Publications Board is also funded from this budget and I should indicate that as the Ministry responsible for the Board we have been satisfied with the amount of work they have put into addressing their key mandates. The Board is responsible for control and regulation of films and publications intended for distribution or exhibition within the republic by means of classification or exemptions.
The Films and Publications Amendment Bill that the Hon Minister will introduce in this House during this current session is aimed at enhancing the capacity of the Board and law enforcement agencies to deal more effective with non compliance with the law, specifically with regard to the issue of combating child pornography images.
The Board is also currently involved in a schools Internet safety project aimed at educating school children and teachers about the responsible and safe usage of the Internet in schools.
Hon Members, we have also informed the House about the process of repositioning the Government Printing Works (GPW). The utility itself was established as centralised national printing works responsible for meeting the printing and stationery requirements of central government departments.
The current structural arrangements at the GPW have been a source for concern and cabinet recognised the need for its restructuring and repositioning. The Auditor-General has also raised additional concerns with regard to the finances and general administration of the utility. Amongst these had been the adverse audit opinion, the collection of monies from debtor departments and the writing off of stock. We are currently looking at possibility of conducting an external investigation regarding these and other cases.
We are having ongoing interactions that involve the Department of Public Enterprises and the Treasury in resolving some of these processes and finalisation of the restructuring process and we will report the progress to this House.
May I conclude by reaffirming our commitment to improving the general service delivery approach of our department and that we will from time to time come back to you to present our reports as required.
I thank you.
Issued by Ministry of Home Affairs
19 May 2003
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