The new Minister of Home Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, has vowed to root out corrupt officials in her beleaguered department.

Dlamini-Zuma, who has been named "Dr Fix It" by officials, visited a home affairs office in Durban on Monday as part of the mammoth task of sorting out the department's problems.

Speaking to journalists after meeting senior department officials, Dlamini-Zuma said the thorny issue of corruption had been thoroughly discussed.

"We have recognised that there is corruption in the department and we want to fight it vigorously. We will root out anyone who is involved in corruption," she said.

Dlamini-Zuma said only a few officials were involved in corrupt activities, and that crooked officials were giving the department a bad name.

The Minister visited the office to get first hand information about problems in the department.

"We are here to see how they work and also to get how the public feels about Home Affairs," she said.

It was Dlamini-Zuma's first visit to the eThekwini region since her appointment to the new portfolio.

The Home Affairs department has been plagued by corruption scandals and poor service delivery.

The Minister said she would visit Home Affairs centres throughout the country and that she would come up with a comprehensive plan to sort out problems in the department afterwards.

"The visits are like a fact finding mission to determine what needs to be done."

The Minister said she had received reports that some Home Affairs officials had a bad attitude towards the public. She said the department would soon start training officials to respect the public and to accelerate delivery.

One of the criticisms against Home Affairs is that it fails to process applications or it puts wrong information on identity documents or birth certificates.

Thembeni Dlamini, of Inanda outside Durban, said her one-month-old son's birth certificate stated that he was a girl.

"I am now forced to pay R70 to sort the mistake that I did not make. They filled the form for me and they put wrong information," she said.

Dlamini-Zuma said she was not going to accept gross negligence in her department.