Hon Speaker, I
hereby move:
That the Report be adopted.
Thank you.
Declarations of vote:
Thank you, hon Speaker. This department has a backlog on asylum seekers appeals of 150 000. It is of great concern that R200 billion has become a contingent liability. The e-visa was supposed to have been piloted in April. Today, seven months later and still in this House, speeches by the ANC members even last week have lauded our e-visa system that has not been implemented.
The Department of Home Affairs is spending 5% above wage budgets. This is unsustainable. The DA has provided a solution but no one listens. Supply chain issues, irregular expenditure, poor internal controls downtimes ... [Inaudible.] ... the elephant in the room let alone the Government Printing Work who did not even bother to produce their audit report. This department consists of only 770 immigration officials who were missing in action to assist refugees with their recent plight in Cape Town.
The DA will not support this Budgetary Review and Recommendation Report. I thank you.
Speaker, the EFF rejects the Budgetary Review and Recommendation Report. The Department of Home Affairs has been problematic for a while because of the inability of government to properly locate the strategic and objective roles of the department in advancing the developmental ideals of the country and the continent.
This means that our government is unable to successfully execute its mandate because it is caught wanting on what is to be done. If properly located, this department could be the most strategic department for our renewed focus to foster Pan-African unity and development. It can be an enabler in promoting, maintaining and sustaining the rich African culture, a culture of unity and oneness and give legitimacy to colonial establishment.
Instead of playing this revolutionary role in our conception of nationhood within the context of Pan- African unity, the department has relied on colonial prescripts in order to undermine the oneness of African people, a culture of trade relations and economic stability. This department undermines a primary tradition inherent in African people; a tradition of common
courtesy, of compassion, effectiveness and efficiency. This is demonstrated by undermining our African people to long queues which do not allow our people to access permits on time so that they can participate meaningfully in the heritage and economy of our land.
We are not shocked that other people of the world are granted unlimited access to our land as if they are indigenous people. This is the state of Africans in Africa, a state of refugee and discomfort at the hands of their own African siblings. It must be no surprise, therefore, that this attitude get extended to other sectors of society and we get engulfed in xenophobic sentiment as the country. We want the Department of Home Affairs that is welcoming to African people, that does not treat African people as if they are unwelcome in a land that is in reality theirs. [Time expired.] This department must make sure that it checks and balances our ... [Inaudible.]
... hon member! hon member! Your time has expired. Thank you, thank you.
Thank you very much, hon House Chairperson. Ask any South African what they think of the Department of Home Affairs and the first two things that would come to mind are the painstakingly long queues and the systems that are perpetually offline. Ask the people of KwaZulu- Natal and they will speak about the poor service delivery that we see that some offices like the Umngeni office. Speak to our grandmothers in our deep rural areas and they will tell us how they have to spend R200 of their Sassa grant monies to travel to Home Affairs offices far away from their own homes, only to find that Home Affairs offices to where they have travelled are offline for days on end.
Perhaps, the biggest failure from this department is its failure to manage immigration. It is a fact that this department has no idea who is in South Africa, from which countries and whether those foreign nationals have entered our country legally or not. They have no clue whether any of the spaza shops or any of the Chinese malls are run by migrants with legal documentation or not.
The Department spends millions on deporting undocumented migrants back to their own countries, only for those economic migrants to cross back over the border because, in fact, there is no border. The Department of Home Affairs recently admitted that it has no legal capacity or resources to enforce its own immigration laws. Thus, now faces just close to R700 million in civil claims brought against it for these failures.
Amnesty international says that South Africa's broken asylum system leaves thousands of applicants undocumented, causing tensions with locals. In the same vein the SA Chamber of Commerce has warned that it is this department's failure to document migrants that leads to xenophobia. The question remains: Can this department fix itself and fix what is broken? Only time will tell.
In the spirit of wanting to fix what is broken, the IFP will support this Budgetary Review and Recommendation Report.
Afrikaans:
Agb Huisvoorsitter, die rol wat die Departement van Binnelandse Sake moet vervul om die identiteit van Suid-Afrikaanse burgers te beskerm, die migrasie van mense te reguleer en ook die land se internasionale verpligtinge na te kom, wat bewegingsregulering betref, moet nie onderskat word nie.
Hierdie mandaat staan sentraal in binnelanse veiligheid as ook die beskerming van Suid-Afrikaanse burgers wat in die buitekand reis.
English:
The three overarching budget programmes through which the department's mandate is at most rated namely; administration, citizen affairs and immigration affairs can only succeed if they coexist in synergy.
Afrikaans:
Te oordeel aan talle klagtes van die publiek, neem aansoeke van reisdokumente in heelwat gevalle, soms maande of geen terugvoering word ontvang deur die amptelike kanale op die departement se webwerf nie. Ons
ontvang weekliks talle klagtes van die publiek wat doodgewoon geen reaksie op hul navrae ontvang nie.
English:
The administration should be able to support the citizens' programme to provide accessible services and documents for citizens and lawful residents and immigration affairs should be able to regulate foreign visitors and enforce immigration legislation and deportations.
Afrikaans:
Die departement bedryf sy sake so, dat hy tans regseise van meer as R2 miljard, vanwe swak dienslewering in die gesig staar. Die departement erken self dat hy nie oor die kapasiteit beskik om immigrasiewetgewing te polisieer nie, met spesifieke verwysing na die heersende oproer onder onwettige immigrante by die Verenigde Nasieskantore, VN-kantore, in Pretoria en in Kaapstad nie. Die VF Plus ondersteun nie die verslag nie.
Thank you hon, House Chair. The National Freedom Party welcomes the Budgetary Review and
Recommendation Report of the Department of Home Affairs tabled here today. Allow me first of all to welcome the decision by the Department of Home Affairs together with the Department of Tourism in relaxing the requirements for the unabridged birth certificate particularly for foreign children that want to visit South Africa, making it a lot easier enhancing the tourism industry.
Hon chairperson, what is quite evident here is the fact that the department is facing serious challenges. I think it is time that maybe this department needs a full forensic audit into the challenges that they face to be able to see exactly what is going on so that we can start addressing them. You know, it appears to be a norm at the moment that the information technology, IT, system seems to be failing the Department of Home Affairs always. People are going to the Home Affairs offices and they are turned away because the systems are down. They have to go back and told to come back and the next day it is exactly the same thing. So, it appears to be serious problem.
Work permits appears to be problem ... [Inaudible.] ... going rate in South Africa at the moment it is about
R30 000 if you want a work permit. The going rate to come and go across the border today is R50 at a time that is all you need to pay at SA borders to be able to cross over. Over and above the challenges that we are facing in terms of supply chain and the irregular expenditure we need to pay more attention particularly to the porous borders that we have because this is exactly where greater percentage of the corruption and illegal foreigners that are entering South Africa appears to be taking place. We call for greater border control in terms of that.
The other problem that many people seem to be experiencing is, where applications have to be submitted to an organisation, an independent organisation called Visa Facilitation Services, VFS, they have to submit it at paying a lots of money for it. What happens is that - I tell you - if there is one document outstanding they have to resubmit with everything and pay again. We think that the department needs to take control of this rather than outsourcing and have internal capacity to be able to do that. The National Freedom Party very reluctantly will support this on the understanding that the department
will ... [Time expired.] ... do a forensic investigation to deal with this challenges. Thank you.
Thank you, House Chair. House Chair, the ACDP is aware of the many challenges facing this department as we - like many other parliamentarians - receive many constituency queries and complains. We welcome the additional R1,8 billion allocated for the mordernisation programme as well as the R7,1 billion set aside of the medium term as employee compensation to improve and expand client interface. We really are looking forward to an improvement in the services that are delivered.
However, one of the key challenges remains with the border management with the number of illegal immigrants increasing over the years. As you know this places a lot of pressure on our resources when it comes to health, education and ... [Inaudible.] ... services. Regrettably, our borders remain porous. It is therefore a shame that the Border Management Agency Bill lapsed in the Fifth Parliament due to a dispute with the Treasury on the Border Management Agency, BMA, taking over customs
payments at border posts. This issue needs to be resolved.
The ACDP also welcomes yesterday's announcement by the Minister that he has signed a waiver which allows foreign children to enter the country without carrying the additional supporting documents, the unabridged birth certificate. This ill-considered requirement - a number of years ago - had a devastating impact on tourism numbers and eventually since it prevailed and that requirement has been done away with, regrettably again, at the cost of tourists coming to South Africa.
The Electoral Commission's budget is also referred to in the Report and it falls within this budget. Many questions have been asked in this regard relating to a number of issues of double voting, indelible ink and zip- zip machines. These issues need to be addressed as we prepare for the local government elections going into that season. The report makes mention of a lot of other recommendations about the entities reporting to it and clearly, as Parliament exercises its oversight functions that portfolio committee must ensure that those
recommendations are complied with and are implemented to the ... [Inaudible.] ... I thank you.
Declarations of vote: (Cont...)
House Chair, the ANC supports the Budgetary Review and Recommendation Report of Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs. The Constitution of our country provides for the right of dignity in the Bill of Rights which entails the right to identification and citizenship amongst other things. The Department of Home Affairs plays a critical role in entrenching the rights of our people to citizenship. Through the Independent Electoral Commission, IEC, the department continues to strengthen and deepen our democracy by creating a platform for our people to exercise their rights in determining the government of their choice. In this call, we applaud the work by the IEC in the recent elections in May.
The Budgetary Review and Recommendation Report, BRRR, further ensures that the Department of Home Affairs will focus on repositioning itself as a modern and secure organisation improving and expanding client interface and delivery of imperatives, establishing and
operationalising a border management agency, streamlining and securing international migration as well as establishing public-private partnership in support of key infrastructure projects.
As part of contributing to the target set by the President of doubling international tourists arrival to 21 million by 2030, the department has introduced an e- visa which will ensure the ease of travel for our international visitors and the creation of jobs especially in the tourism sector and the entire value chain.
We have noted the clean audit achieved by the Government Printing Works, GPW, and we urge them to ensure return on investment, sound financial management and sustainability. We also note the unqualified audit opinion received by the department and urge that it enforces consequence management for procurements which are not complaint with the supply chain management regulations, irregular expenditure and corruption. We also urge the department to feel existing vacancies to ensure stability and efficient services to our people.
The ANC, therefore, supports the BRRR of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs. [Applause.]
Division demanded.
The House divided.