NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION 1125
DATE OF PUBLICATION: Monday, 19 April 2010
INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 10 of 2010
Mr R B Bhoola (MF) to ask the Minister of Home Affairs:
(1) Whether she has been informed of the level of the alleged corruption
with regard to the issuing of identity documents through her
Departmentâs pilot project aimed at enhancing service delivery to
rural areas (details furnished); if not, what is the position in this
regard; if so, what are the relevant details;
2) whether she intends taking any steps to deal with corruption in her
Department and at border posts; if not, why not; if so, what steps?
NW1279E
REPLY
1) No. All I get are numerous reports of numerous foiled attempts. Such
foiled attempts are made possible by the presence of Home Affairs
Stakeholder Forum members, who assist the suspecting, and vigilant
Home Affairs officials, manning the Screening Committees, of dubious
advances made by unscrupulous individuals, some of whom end up on the
wrong side of the law. Such arrests are made possible by the presence
of the South African Police, in the conducted service delivery venues,
as SAPS remain one of the Home Affairs Stakeholder Forum members.
2) Yes. I have embarked on an intensified campaign to ensure that the
Counter Corruption Unit (CCU) in the Department adopts a zero-
tolerance policy with regard to corruption. To this end I have
demonstrated this in more than one way, such as:
i) Ensuring that the capacity of the CCU receives priority attention
within the constraints of the current Medium Term Expenditure
Budget.
ii) An Intelligence-driven approach and posture which have resulted
in the establishment of an Analysis sub-unit. This Unit has
already, successfully, analysed current and past trends of
corruption within the Department, which lead to successful
prosecutions after comprehensive investigations were conducted.
More than fifty cases were exposed from one analysis exercise,
and it has resulted in the need to conduct formal investigations.
With the strengthened structure in place, the Department is able
to analyse trends, identify risk areas and ensure prosecution of
culprits, within and outside the Department, who are involved in
corrupt activities.
iii) The strengthening of relations with other law enforcement
agencies has led to an increased co-operation with the agencies.
iv) Results obtained from the Analysis Units on processes (within the
Civic Services and Immigration Services Branches) have enabled
the Department to identify and strengthen loopholes which were
exploited in the past.
v) The Department has already re-engineered births, marriages and
deaths processes to include working with other stakeholders,
including the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the
Department of Basic Education as well as the Department of
Health.
vi) In terms of the Late Registrations of Birth (LRB), Screening
Committees have been established to curb fraudulent Late
Registrations of Birth. The purpose of these committees are to:
⢠Oversee âon the spotâ adjudication.
⢠âTrack and Traceâ to track the processing of LRB
applications.
⢠Online fingerprint verification of informants.
⢠A full search of each LRB applicantâs fingerprints is
undertaken against records of the Automated Fingerprint
Identification System (AFIS) to determine if the applicant
was previously in possession of an enabling document.
⢠Suspicious and doubtful LRB applications are referred to the
Inspectorate of the Immigration Services Branch for further
investigation.