The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) would review its permitting policies, which might include extending the length of work permits for foreigners with scarce skills, Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Thursday.

Speaking at a media briefing in Cape Town, the Minister said that some changes could possibly be made to the Immigration Act.

She noted that the DHA would, for instance, consider extending the work permits for foreigners with scarce skills by up to five years, instead of the current one-year period.

The Minister noted that the country's policies had to be more welcoming for such individuals, in order to attract and retain scarce skills and grow the economy.

Further, she noted that the DHA also wanted to ensure that foreign students who want to study in South Africa can get study permits in their country of origin, instead of first having to come to South Africa and then try to apply for a permit, wasting time they could have spent studying.

In addition, the DHA was planning on eradicating the backlog with regard to the registration of births, as well as phasing out the late registration of births by 2011.

Meanwhile, the Governance and Administration cluster of government, also announced that it would undertake a Public Service Anticorruption Strategy, which would include a comprehensive training programme on ethics, said Dlamini-Zuma.

The Canadian International Development Agency would invest R20-million over five years and conduct this training, which would be provided for general employees, anti-corruption practitioners and law enforcement officials.

About 250 managers in the public service were also currently undergoing training as part of the executive development programme of the Public Administration, Leadership and Management Academy, added Dlamini-Zuma.

The Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Ministry, which also formed part of the Governance and Administration cluster, would also undertake a local government turnaround strategy.

Discussions would now be held at a municipal level to ensure that local turnaround strategies for each municipality were implemented into the municipal integrated development plans and budgetary processes for 2010/11.

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka said that the national turnaround strategy would be "customised" to local municipalities throughout January to March next year.

The budgets could then be adapted to take this into account, by June, which would allow the local turnaround strategies to be implemented from July.