Mr Chairman, I will try to keep to seven minutes. I am sorry that our chairlady is not with us. She is a great leader of our committee, which is a really happy committee. We all get on well together and we wish her well.
I do want to say how pleased I was when I glanced at the exhibition to see the pledge, because its values, which build a society, and the values in that pledge are the sort of values that we want for us. I believe that in the department we are seeing those values being applied more and more.
Today, in South Africa, at all levels of government, we see areas of excellence as well as others that are really struggling. Some are recovering and improving. One of those departments that is moving from struggling to excellence is Home Affairs.
Director-General Mkuseli Apleni and all of his senior staff team are to be congratulated on how they are streamlining and turning around a department that was almost dysfunctional. [Applause.] I think that the Minister and Deputy Minister have given good leadership as well.
One of the great things about our democratic society since 1994 is that Members of Parliament have opportunities for oversight and inspection that we never had before. I can go, with politeness and courtesy, to any government department or any prison and gain access as a Member of Parliament, and ask questions and inspect.
The challenge for officials is to accept that a Member of Parliament who does that, in a polite way, is only doing his or her work. Similarly, if he or she uncovers inefficiencies - large or small - and brings them to the attention of the Minister or officials, they must not resent those actions, complain or be angry with the officials who may be below them.
In the last few weeks I made two unannounced visits to Home Affairs offices. In Oudtshoorn I noticed that the offices are well signposted and branded, but they are not near public transport. They are on the outskirts of the town. The manager of the office, Mr Carl Booysen, was helpful and seemed efficient. The office made a good impression. It's a long move from the days of kwaNdabazabantu to Home Affairs. [Applause.]
One of Mr Booysen's difficulties is obtaining enough service for checking on illegal immigrants who are moving into the towns of the Little Karoo. Apparently the Port Elizabeth office, where the inspector is based, is understaffed and he is not able to come as often as he would like.
A hero and a champion in the department - and I'm sure that there are many who live out that pledge that I had just read - is a lady called Hlengiwe Ngcobo. She is a fine example of a civil servant who works hard, serves the people and does so pleasantly. She is in charge of the Estcourt, KwaZulu- Natal office. The team that she has does its best, and they often work overtime to complete their work.
I discovered, quite by chance, that there was no photocopier in the office, but Hlengiwe did not do nothing. She made a plan and had photocopies made at a nearby shop. When I pointed this out to the Minister in October 2011, she said she would attend to it. The photocopier arrived last month and Hlengiwe and her team were hugely excited and grateful. How can a Home Affairs office function without a photocopier?
Furthermore, in the office there is no cleaner, so the office staff have to clean their own offices, and that includes cleaning the toilets. When I inspected the baby-changing room, there was only a shelf but no bins. There was a neat little pile of used, disposable nappies lying in the corner and it didn't smell like roses. [Laughter.]
The Minister referred to the excellent job of replacing all the immigration officers at the O R Tambo International Airport. There were problems there and the new recruits from the SA National Defence Force, whom she referred to, were trained in the Northern Cape, moved to O R Tambo International Airport and there was a changeover. I think that's to the credit of the director-general and his staff.
I want to pose a question to the Minister. She made a political decision to employ people from an island in the Caribbean - where only Spanish is spoken, where there are no land borders and only one quiet international airport - as trainers. Furthermore, the island of Cuba is ruled by a communist regime which denies its people free political activity. The point is that their values are in direct conflict with the values in that beautiful pledge which the Minister has brought to us.