Thank you very much. At the ANC's 53rd national conference, held in Mangaung, in the Free State, in December 2012, we committed ourselves to positioning Home Affairs as the backbone of security and service delivery of the developmental state. We said this because we had suffered the pangs and vestiges of the apartheid regime. The main objective of the Department of Home Affairs was to control our people and deny them their citizenship - that is, the apartheid regime - deny them their identity, deny them their dignity and deny them their freedom of movement.
Today, we can say with the utmost pride and humility that the Department of Home Affairs has transformed the country, in this regard. Today, our people have a Department of Home Affairs that plays an effective role in providing them with pertinent documents to access their basic rights. We have moved with the utmost speed to ensure that this department becomes the backbone of the developmental state that we seek to build. We have ensured that this department remains central to our national efforts to strengthen national security and provide our people services that they are entitled to, in terms of the Constitution.
We want to take this opportunity to congratulate Minister Gigaba and his predecessors for all their tireless efforts to make this department the flagship of our national efforts to transform South Africa. It is through your decisive and vigilant leadership that, today, we have a department that continues to play a crucial role in enabling all South Africans to proudly claim their citizenship with the utmost dignity and a great sense of pride. Civic affairs is the custodian of the National Population Register, which contains the records of all citizens and permanent residents, including their changes in status, such as marriage and death.
Ngiselapho Ngqongqoshe, ngiyafisa ukuthatha ithuba lokuba sibonge njengabantu besifazane ikakhulukazi ngoba ngaphambilini bekwenzeka ukuthi uma ngabe usuthi ulungisa izinto zakho njengomuntu wesifazane, uzithole usubhaliswe njengomuntu oshadile ungazi kodwa ngokungena kukaKhongolose kulo Mnyango, lowo mkhuba usuyaphela. Sekuyashabalala ukuba abantu besifazane bashadiswe nabantu abangabazi ngoba uyayisiphula inkohlakalo. Siyafisa impela ukukubonga lokho. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[On that note, Minister, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you on behalf of women, especially because, in the past when you sorted out your affairs as a woman, you would find that you were unknowingly registered as a married person. However, because of the work done by the ANC in this department, this practice is coming to an end. There is an end to women being registered as married to people that they don't know because the ANC is putting an end to corruption. We would really like to commend you on that.]
Immigration affairs determines the status and identity of foreign nationals or international immigrants. It regulates immigration through permitting and controlling movement through the system, and provides consular services abroad. The branch also has an inspectorate function responsible for enforcing the Immigration Act and its Regulations.
When the department came before the committee to present its annual performance plan and budget - I am going also talk about this and couple it with the Border Management Agency - we were a bit concerned about the fact that we need to have a sizeable number of inspectors to control the borders and the immigration processes. This requires a sizeable amount of money in terms of the budget. We do understand that the department is not given enough to execute the mandate in a manner which we'd all desire. However, we are happy that we were informed by your department, hon Minister, that you are going to be employing more inspectors to ensure that there is sufficient control in so far as the borders are concerned.
The National Development Plan obliges the department to facilitate the acquisition of critical skills for the economy and to enable efficient, secure and managed movement of these people. As I explained earlier on, we have people that have special, critical skills that we require. Your department facilitates matters by ensuring that the process of applications is simplified, so that those people with special skills are not prevented from coming in.
What we also appreciate is that the department had planned to increase the number of live-capture offices, by March 2014, at least. We appreciate the speed with which the systems have been modernised. We can testify to the fact that when one goes to a Home Affairs office these days and applies for an ID smart card, it takes a lot less time than in the past when one applied for an identity document. I went to apply for my ID smart card in Pietermaritzburg and it literally took 10 days. That is service delivery!
The ANC supports the Budget Vote of the department. Thank you. [Applause.]