Hon Chair, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon members, hon colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, before I discuss the Department of Home Affairs, I would like to comment on the entities that fall under its custodianship.
The Independent Electoral Commission continues to be devoid of scandals and political intrigue that have become so common in government. It is run professionally and efficiently. As I stated last year, the Independent Electoral Commission, IEC, does not allow itself to be bullied by any political party, irrespective of size. As a result, it is respected both locally and internationally to the extent that other countries with longer and more established democracies seek its guidance and advice. I repeat, as I said last year, we can only puff out our chests with pride when we talk about them. Thank you, IEC, for making South Africa proud. [Applause.]
The Film and Publication Board, FPB, has done well in fulfilling its mandate, despite its strange shenanigans with the painting The Spear last year, and it has worked hard at improving its past successes. The FPB has filled a number of key posts, as a result of which more than double the number of products have been classified in the 2012-13 financial year compared to that of 2011-12.
The Government Printing Works, GPW, is truly a prime example of how an entity should operate; so much so that it has reached the point where it is completely self-sufficient. This entity should have provided other similar entities in this government with an insight into how it works so that they, too, can emulate what the GPW does so successfully.
Turning to the Department of Home Affairs, it is clear to me that the department appears to be riding on its past successes with nothing new or exciting to report this year, as the Minister has told us today. This may explain why, despite the Minister being appointed as the political head of this department in October last year, she has not once attended or formally met the members of the portfolio committee.
The Minister has claimed that the department supports the National Development Plan, NDP, but if this is the case, how is she monitoring the objectives within this plan, and how are they being met by the Department of Home Affairs? The Minister's predecessor publicly stated on radio that citizens will be voting using their new identity document, ID, cards in the general elections next year. Is this deadline going to be met? If this target has not yet been fulfilled, is it going to be moved? Well, from what the Minister told us today, she has confirmed that this deadline has been postponed.
Since 2009, the department has not published a list of scarce and critical skills, as it is required to do in the Immigration Act. The Minister replied to a written question that the department intends publishing a list in the near future. Hon Minister, when will the list of the scarce and critical skills be published?
A total of 6 217 permits have been issued up until 5 March 2013. The target set by the department is 50 000. We clearly have a long way to go. It remains a mystery as to how this department will reach its own targets and by when, particularly considering that this is also the objective listed in the NDP.
To make this an even greater mystery, the Minister has indicated that the track-and-trace system is not currently able to capture jobs and skills- specific criteria for work permit applications. How then will we know which skills we need to import?
The department has spent in excess of R46 million on legal fees in the financial year. There appears to be no sign of this abating as the department continues to be taken to court for administrative failures, errors and for not respecting its own legislation. Court orders are routinely not respected. Despite the courts being clear about the opening of Refugee Reception Centres, the department simply ignores court orders and refuses to reopen them. The solution, we are told by the department, is that centres will be opened at land border posts. The plan appears to ignore air and sea ports. The government cannot ignore the fact that South Africa is a safe haven for asylum seekers and refugees living in conflict zones in search of a better, safer life. Instead of ignoring this issue, we must tackle it head-on and take our human rights-based approach to handle asylum seekers and refugees.
I am interested in the Minister's announcement of the Border Management Agency. A leaked document that I have in my possession reveals that the department has an extraordinary plan to introduce refugee camps, where people previously called asylum seekers will instead be referred to as refugees. This means that it's not just about detaining asylum seekers during the status determination process, but keeping refugees in camp facilities. The Refugees Act empowers the director-general to establish a reception office. There is no empowerment provision to establish refugee camps. The fact that the camp policy is much costlier than the current system and requires minimal government support for asylum seekers or refugees seems to have escaped the authors of this proposal. We need to know exactly what the plans are in this regard and whether the new Border Management Agency incorporates this.
In April 2012, I presented a Public Protector report to this House entitled, "Unconscionable Delay". It highlights the abuse of power in administration. This straightforward application remains pending despite recommendations by the Public Protector that it be approved. It is an indictment of the department. The department officials simply refuse to grant this and many other applications, because it appears that it is their egos and not the law that is being respected.
Sadly, it gets worse as this department and its officials sometimes forget the impact that it has on real people's lives. Take for example the letter I received in March from someone in the Eastern Cape. Without quoting the person's name, he/she said:
The person underlined here is an indigenous South African of this country. It is very painful to see her being humiliated and used with no dignity, and to be made less than sub-human, being humiliated and reduced by a public officer who refuses to issue an ID to her, despite declarations and public affidavits made by family members to ascertain her as having been born and bred in Colesberg, South Africa.
She applied for an ID on 15 February 2012, but to date this has not been issued to her. In terms of section 20 of the Bill of Rights, she is entitled to this document. She was born in 1964, in Colesberg. As we currently speak, she does not have access to employment, health care, a social grant, no community benefits, and no rights of whatever nature are considered for her because she is treated as an outcast and a foreigner.
Further down the letter it talks about Home Affairs officials as follows:
It might happen to many people who opt to keep quiet about such officials who undermine people just because of their poor backgrounds and positions. He thinks that he is above the law and with a superiority complex in bullying others. Never on earth can an ID application take such a long time.
There are still incidents of people being abused by officials of the Department of Home Affairs, despite the many improvements that the Minister has spoken about. I advise the Minister to read the regular feature in the Daily Sun newspaper called "Home Affairs Horrors" to understand the impact of poor service delivery by her department on ordinary South Africans.
The abuse does not stop here and is now reaching other areas. The recent high-profile Guptagate saga is another example. Clearly the government is working hard to create a perception that it did not condone this major breach of security and that it opposes this violation that took place at the end of April. At a media conference on Friday, all the Ministers, including the Minister of Home Affairs, stressed that no executive authority was granted for the plane to land. If this is the case, how is it that, according to Home Affairs itself, all 270 passengers and 12 crew members on the plane in question had been processed through immigration?