In light of the fact that the SA High Commission Canada charges CAN$127 for a passport and CAN$253 for a maxi passport and the SA High Commission New Zealand charges NZ$135 for a passport and NZ$270 for a maxi passport, what are the reasons that (a) the prices are far higher than the R1 200 for a passport and R2 400 for a maxi passport advertised on 1 November 2022, (b) non-first-time United Kingdom (UK) applicants pay the equivalent of R1 200 for a passport and R2 400 for a maxi passport when they are forced to pay an additional GBP35 to apply through Visa Facilitation Services Global and (c) non-first-time UK applicants do not have the option to apply directly at the SA High Commission?
a) New passport and travel document tariffs were gazetted in the Government Gazette No. 47256 dated 9 September 2022. In accordance with this Gazette, the tariff for a normal 32-page adult and child passport applied for at a South African mission is R1 200.00 while the tariff for a maxi passport applied for at a South African mission is R2 400.00. These new tariffs ...
(1)What are the details, including addresses, of the Home Affairs offices situated in the municipal area of the Walter Sisulu Local Municipality;
(2) whether the offices are fully staffed; if not, what (a) is the plan to staff the offices and (b) are the time frames of filling the vacant posts;
(3) whether the internet works optimally at the offices; if not, why not; if so, what (a) is done when there is load shedding and (b) are his department’s plans to ensure that services are not interrupted by load shedding;
(4) whether the phone lines are functional at the offices; if not, what are the time frames regarding the date it is envisaged that the phone lines will be fixed;
(5) whether he has found that there are any other specified services that are not rendered and/or delivered at the offices; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what (a) plans are in place to ensure that the services will be delivered and (b) is the frequency of service of the mobile office to towns that are not serviced by offices?
1. The Department of Home Affairs has two offices in the municipal area and they are Aliwal North, Local Office Medium situated at number 18 Hunt Street Aliwal North 9750 and Burgersdorp Local Office Small, No.31 Van Der Walt Street, Burgersdorp 9744,
2. Offices are not fully staffed and there is a capacitation programme currently underway to fund vacancies but all posts for office ...
Given that on 1 November 2022 the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs was informed that staff in the Home Affairs legislative drafting unit do not have the necessary legislative drafting expertise, what (a) total number of staff are in the legislative drafting unit, (b) is the total salary and benefits of the staff in the specified unit, (c) are the reasons that staff were hired to the positions without the relevant experience, (d) work are the staff currently busy with given that they do not have legislative drafting expertise, (e) are the reasons that legislative drafting training was not undertaken for the staff, (f) period has the position of Director: Legal Drafting been vacant and (g) are the reasons that an independent legislative drafter was appointed and the skill was not brought in-house?
(a) Six (6)
(b) R4 555 841 per annum.
(c) The Senior Legal Administration Officers have the requisite qualifications, as well as experience, to be appointed within the Unit. There is however a distinction between these competencies and that of a Specialist Legislative Drafter, who, has advanced knowledge and expertise required for the formulation of Draft Bill into a legislative framework for submission to Cabinet and ...
What was the total amount of (a) legal fees that was spent on defending legal actions against his department, (b) cost orders that were made against his department and (c) contingent liabilities against his department in the 2021-22 financial year in each case?
a) Hereunder please find a list of argued matters in court and the amount spent on legal costs.
NB: Please note that where amounts are not stated it is because the Department is awaiting invoices of payments from the Department of Justice (State Attorney). The Department of Justice is responsible for payments on behalf of Client-Departments and the Departments in turn, reimburse the offices ...
(1)With regard to the responsibilities of his department in relation to the Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Act, Act 49 of 2003, what total number of applications has his department (a) received in terms of section 2(1) since the specified Act was promulgated, (b) granted in terms of section 3 of the specified Act and (c) rejected in terms of section 2(3) of the Act;
(2) what total number of rejections had reasons communicated to the applicants as it is required in terms of section 2(3) of the Act?
(1) (a) A total number of 476 applications were received.
(b) A total number of 7 orders were granted for alteration of sex description.
(c) No rejections were made in terms of section 2(3) of the Act.
(2) None.
END
(1)Whether he will furnish Mr A C Roos with a list of the court cases in the 2022-23 financial year, in which his department has been instructed to amend regulations and/or legislation, that have not been done; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
(2) whether he will furnish Mr A C Roos with a list of the (a) deadlines given by the court to effect the order for each case and (b) actions taken to satisfy the requirements of the court order in each case; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
1. During 2022-2023 financial year the Department was instructed to amend certain sections of the Immigration Act, 13 of 2022 on the matter of Tereza Rayment & 5 others v The Minister of Home Affairs: court case No. 3919/20, as summarised hereunder:
The Applicants sought to declare the Immigration Act, 13 of 2002, unconstitutional based on Sections 10(6), 11(6), 18(2) and 43, and Regulation ...
Regarding the Government Printing Works system crashes in February 2021, 31 January 2022, 25 Μarch 2022 and 11 April 2022 that caused complete audit data loss, (a) what are the reasons that on 31 January 2022, almost a year after the total data loss of February 2021, there was no backup in place, causing yet another complete audit data loss, (b) what is the total cost of data recovery to date as a result of the system crashes, (c) by what date will the data recovery project be completed and (d) what are the total estimated costs for the completion of the data recovery project?
(a) No audit data/information was lost on the 31 January 2022. The system disruption that happened on this day was in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) environment, which does not have finance/audit information. GPW used the disk-backup to restore the affected systems in the DMZ environment.
(b) The following organisations were consulted to assist with data recovery:
- Hewlett Packard (OEM)
- CSSI data recovery specialists
- State ...
(1)What (a) steps have been taken to ensure that communities living in rural areas are easily accommodated in the new online application system and (b) online awareness campaigns related to the new application system have been undertaken;
(2) whether any community education programmes aimed at empowering persons with the know-how were conducted; if not, why not; if so, what enabling resources does his department offer to persons to make the system more user friendly?
(1)(a) We continue to make efforts to ensure that all communities, including those in rural areas, are accommodated in the new online application system. The Branch Appointment Booking System (BABS) is one of the Home Affairs interventions for improving services, including for our people located in rural areas.
Members of Parliament have been very helpful in the development and rollout of the online application ...
(1)What (a) amount does his department owe to the (i) Walter Sisulu Local Municipality and (ii) Senqu Local Municipality, (b) is the age analysis in each case on monies owed and (c) are the details of the (i) building and (ii) use thereof;
(2) whether his department has any plans in place to address the debts; if not, why not; if so, what (a) plan and (b) are the time frames in which the debt will be settled?
(1)&(2)
The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) does not owe Walter Sisulu Local Municipality and Senqu Local Municipality any money for rates and services. In this regard, please note that the municipal accounts for rates and services in respect of buildings occupied by the DHA are managed and paid for by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI). The DHA reimburses the DPWI ...
What total number of notices of birth were issued by his department to migrants who have given birth in the Republic in the past 10 years?
The Department does not keep statistics of the manually issued notices of birth to migrants as there’s no provision on the National Population Register (NPR) to register such notices.
The Live Capture birth register module has been designed to capture such information in the future once birth registration migrate from NPR to Live Capture.
END
