Date: 01/12/2004
Source: Department of Home Affairs
Title: Mapisa-Nqakula: Opening of Khayelitsha Home Affairs Regional Office
Address by Hon NN Mapisa-Nqakula, Minister of Home Affairs on the occasion of the opening of Home Affairs Regional Office in Khayelitsha, Cape Town
The Executive Mayor of the City of Cape Town
Chairperson of the portfolio Committee
Councillors, Religious and other Community leaders
Friends
Today we mark International AIDS Day and I thought we should rise and observe a moment of silence and give a thought to the many that have died of the disease.
Thank you.
I thought I should start today by sharing with you our experience of the past 24 hours. At about 12:30 early hours of this morning, we arrived back from an official visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo where we have just concluded a Memorandum of Agreement between our two countries to cooperate in matters of Immigration and the registration of citizens.
We had gone there to share with the Congolese our experiences as well to offer them assistance in registering their process of establishing a Civic Registration system for their country.
Although I know that our own advancement on these issues puts us in a position to help other nations in our continent, I also couldn’t help giving a thought to some of the many South Africans, who despite these advancements still do not have access to Home Affairs services here at home. To some of these South Africans, those who still have not acquired IDs, those who still cannot register their children; their experience is the same as those of the Congolese who are still yet to set up their systems.
In order to address the real challenge that our Department faces in improving service delivery levels, what we need to do is to ensure that our services are conveniently accessible to all South Africans, particularly those who still have to travel long distances to cities and towns in order to access these services. And in the main, Programme Director, this is the reason why we are here today.
The Department of Home Affairs occupies a central place in Governments service delivery priorities and plays an important facilitating role to ensure citizens access these services.
Many of you will know that over the past years, the department has struggled with a number of problems in its ability to play this role effectively. We have identified some of these problems as capacity related, some have to do with infrastructure, some, such as corruption are people related and others pointed to a lack of work ethic.
We are currently working on a multi pronged strategy to ensure that these problems are addressed as matter of urgency in order to free up the energies of all our staff to focus on the delivery of an effective and efficient service to our clients.
I have been saddened at times to receive reports about how some of our people have had to go hungry because they couldn’t receive their welfare grants owing to the period it takes for them to receive an ID. We have heard of young people who have lost opportunities because they could not get a loan or a bursary to advance their studies without an ID or children who are malnourished when they could qualify for Child Support grant if they were registered at birth.
Today, as we observe the International AIDS Day, I am also aware that some of people affected by HIV and AIDS might be in dire need of our documents in order to access grants, including children orphaned by this dreadful disease.
It is for this reason that I have directed that our Department should conduct a survey that will identify the extent of the problem regarding South Africans who have not had any access to some of our services. Through this survey, we want to determine the number of South Africans who might be over the age of 16, but have never applied for an ID, we need to identify South Africans who still have not converted their documents to the new green bar-coded ID, we need to know the extent to which there is no awareness about the need to register children at birth, particularly in the rural areas.
Additional to this survey, I have also directed that an audit be conducted to determine the location of our infrastructure and offices in order for us to plan our expansion programme. It is important for us to rethink the location of our offices, because in the past priority was given to opening Home Affairs offices in towns.
This kind of planning did not take into consideration the reality that the majority of people we serve are in the rural areas, informal settlements and townships such as this one. Any further construction and opening of new home affairs offices will now be based on the results of this audit and we are sure that this will contribute to our target of providing easy access to our services for everyone.
Today, we officially open this office here in Khayelitsha. The idea of opening such an office meets very well with our intended objectives to reposition our department as I have outlined here today.
One of the serious concerns we have about our offices has been the fact that some of them are in a dilapidated state, some do not have computers, some are not properly secured and generally they need a serious facelift. We believe that this office can be developed into a model office that addresses some of these concerns that I am referring to. I know that a lot of work has gone into ensuring the completion of the office itself, and I should thank our provincial manager here in the Western Cape usis Martha for all the passion and energy she and her team have put into the project.
I am inviting all the people of Khayelitsha and surrounding areas to make full use of this facility as provided to you. There are many of our people in other parts of the country, in Limpopo, in KwaZulu-Natal, in the Eastern Cape and elsewhere who still have to travel long distances just to make an application or to enquire about a birth certificate.
We have not yet covered all our targets, but we are a work in progress. For you, we have already started and what I request is that you should see this facility as your facility. Become involved in what happens here, in so far as your input will help us serve this community better. Most importantly, take good care of this facility. There are those who have criticised us for opening infrastructure in the townships because they say these facilities will be vandalised and broken into. I am sure we can prove them wrong.
We have made a real commitment to address this important issue head on. This includes in the short term, our decision to convert containers into service points, the roll out of fully computerised mobile units and the partnerships with MPCCs and municipalities in providing office space for Home Affairs services.
Lastly programme director, allow me to draw this analogy. Today we open a new home for Home Affairs, a new home for all our services. Indeed, Ikhayelitsha. It couldn’t have happened at more relevant place.
I thank you.
Media enquiry can be directed to:
Paseka Letsatsi
Cell: 082 883 9969
Nkosan Sebuyi
Cell: 082 886 6708
Issued by: Ministry of Home Affairs
1 December 2004
Source: Department of Home Affairs
Title: Mapisa-Nqakula: Opening of Khayelitsha Home Affairs Regional Office
Address by Hon NN Mapisa-Nqakula, Minister of Home Affairs on the occasion of the opening of Home Affairs Regional Office in Khayelitsha, Cape Town
The Executive Mayor of the City of Cape Town
Chairperson of the portfolio Committee
Councillors, Religious and other Community leaders
Friends
Today we mark International AIDS Day and I thought we should rise and observe a moment of silence and give a thought to the many that have died of the disease.
Thank you.
I thought I should start today by sharing with you our experience of the past 24 hours. At about 12:30 early hours of this morning, we arrived back from an official visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo where we have just concluded a Memorandum of Agreement between our two countries to cooperate in matters of Immigration and the registration of citizens.
We had gone there to share with the Congolese our experiences as well to offer them assistance in registering their process of establishing a Civic Registration system for their country.
Although I know that our own advancement on these issues puts us in a position to help other nations in our continent, I also couldn’t help giving a thought to some of the many South Africans, who despite these advancements still do not have access to Home Affairs services here at home. To some of these South Africans, those who still have not acquired IDs, those who still cannot register their children; their experience is the same as those of the Congolese who are still yet to set up their systems.
In order to address the real challenge that our Department faces in improving service delivery levels, what we need to do is to ensure that our services are conveniently accessible to all South Africans, particularly those who still have to travel long distances to cities and towns in order to access these services. And in the main, Programme Director, this is the reason why we are here today.
The Department of Home Affairs occupies a central place in Governments service delivery priorities and plays an important facilitating role to ensure citizens access these services.
Many of you will know that over the past years, the department has struggled with a number of problems in its ability to play this role effectively. We have identified some of these problems as capacity related, some have to do with infrastructure, some, such as corruption are people related and others pointed to a lack of work ethic.
We are currently working on a multi pronged strategy to ensure that these problems are addressed as matter of urgency in order to free up the energies of all our staff to focus on the delivery of an effective and efficient service to our clients.
I have been saddened at times to receive reports about how some of our people have had to go hungry because they couldn’t receive their welfare grants owing to the period it takes for them to receive an ID. We have heard of young people who have lost opportunities because they could not get a loan or a bursary to advance their studies without an ID or children who are malnourished when they could qualify for Child Support grant if they were registered at birth.
Today, as we observe the International AIDS Day, I am also aware that some of people affected by HIV and AIDS might be in dire need of our documents in order to access grants, including children orphaned by this dreadful disease.
It is for this reason that I have directed that our Department should conduct a survey that will identify the extent of the problem regarding South Africans who have not had any access to some of our services. Through this survey, we want to determine the number of South Africans who might be over the age of 16, but have never applied for an ID, we need to identify South Africans who still have not converted their documents to the new green bar-coded ID, we need to know the extent to which there is no awareness about the need to register children at birth, particularly in the rural areas.
Additional to this survey, I have also directed that an audit be conducted to determine the location of our infrastructure and offices in order for us to plan our expansion programme. It is important for us to rethink the location of our offices, because in the past priority was given to opening Home Affairs offices in towns.
This kind of planning did not take into consideration the reality that the majority of people we serve are in the rural areas, informal settlements and townships such as this one. Any further construction and opening of new home affairs offices will now be based on the results of this audit and we are sure that this will contribute to our target of providing easy access to our services for everyone.
Today, we officially open this office here in Khayelitsha. The idea of opening such an office meets very well with our intended objectives to reposition our department as I have outlined here today.
One of the serious concerns we have about our offices has been the fact that some of them are in a dilapidated state, some do not have computers, some are not properly secured and generally they need a serious facelift. We believe that this office can be developed into a model office that addresses some of these concerns that I am referring to. I know that a lot of work has gone into ensuring the completion of the office itself, and I should thank our provincial manager here in the Western Cape usis Martha for all the passion and energy she and her team have put into the project.
I am inviting all the people of Khayelitsha and surrounding areas to make full use of this facility as provided to you. There are many of our people in other parts of the country, in Limpopo, in KwaZulu-Natal, in the Eastern Cape and elsewhere who still have to travel long distances just to make an application or to enquire about a birth certificate.
We have not yet covered all our targets, but we are a work in progress. For you, we have already started and what I request is that you should see this facility as your facility. Become involved in what happens here, in so far as your input will help us serve this community better. Most importantly, take good care of this facility. There are those who have criticised us for opening infrastructure in the townships because they say these facilities will be vandalised and broken into. I am sure we can prove them wrong.
We have made a real commitment to address this important issue head on. This includes in the short term, our decision to convert containers into service points, the roll out of fully computerised mobile units and the partnerships with MPCCs and municipalities in providing office space for Home Affairs services.
Lastly programme director, allow me to draw this analogy. Today we open a new home for Home Affairs, a new home for all our services. Indeed, Ikhayelitsha. It couldn’t have happened at more relevant place.
I thank you.
Media enquiry can be directed to:
Paseka Letsatsi
Cell: 082 883 9969
Nkosan Sebuyi
Cell: 082 886 6708
Issued by: Ministry of Home Affairs
1 December 2004
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