Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Minister, hon members, our department and guests in the gallery, Outcome 3 of the Medium-Term Strategic Framework, MTSF, requires that all people in South Africa be and feel free. Linked to this outcome is Outcome 1 of the Department of Home Affairs, which aims at secure South African citizenship and identity. As its strategic goal to realise the outcome, the department is committed to securing South African citizenship and identity through regulating and overseeing the provisions of enabling documents such as identity documents and passports, and maintaining the National Population Register.
The objectives of the department, in line with citizens affairs as outlined in the Estimates of National Expenditure, are to ensure that registration at birth is the only entry point to the National Population Register and to improve on the number of births registered within 30 calendar days of the birth event against the rolling baseline of 618 000 birth registered in 2013-14 to 669 000 in 2015-16. The department also aims at maintaining the standard of service delivery for the issuing of enabling documents by, inter alia, issuing 95% of the projected machine-readable passports of live capture processes within 24 working days in 2013-14.
The ANC regards Home Affairs as the backbone of national security, service delivery and development, because it is the custodian of the unique identity of all citizens and documented foreigners residing in South Africa. In this regard, a national identity database enables any state to achieve these goals if it meets certain criteria. Firstly, the population register must be comprehensive, accurate and secure - births and deaths and any other changes must be recorded; secondly, to secure a population register, babies must be registered within 30 days of birth; and thirdly, all citizens should apply for and receive identity documents at the age of 16, and then they must take care of it to prevent identity theft.
The law in South Africa requires that newborns be registered within 30 days of birth. However, just over 50% of parents will take a year to register their children and sometimes even longer. Another problem is that orphans and other vulnerable children are sometimes not registered, making it difficult for them to claim their citizenship later on. What is of more concern is that late the registration of birth opens up the way for fraud and leads to an insecure and inaccurate national identity database.
Another threat to the National Population Register, NPR, comes from citizens who are 16 years or older, but have not yet applied for an ID. Failure to apply for and collect an ID book at the age of 16 creates opportunities for unscrupulous officials to access these documents and sell them to individuals or organised syndicates who do massive damage to our economy and may even commit acts of terror and sabotage. The aspect of abuse and fraudulent acquisition of South African citizenship is made worse when citizens who have applied for ID books do not collect them at the Department of Home Affairs - I don't know why.
According to its annual performance plan, the department has committed itself to securing South African citizenship and identity. The department is determined to focus on three pillars as a means to realise the outcome mentioned. The first pillar is to ensure that registration at birth is the only entry point for South Africans to the NPR. The second pillar is to issue identity documents to citizens turning 16 years of age and above. The third and last one is to ensure the registration and identification of all South African citizens, foreign residents, refugees and asylum seekers to enhance the integrity and security of identity.
According to its record of performance to realise the objective of ensuring a single entry point to the NPR, the department achieved 0,3% above its target of births registered within 30 days. The connection of health institutions for on-line birth registration was interrupted by the freeze on movement of assets due to audit processes, thus leading to underperformance in this area. However, to remedy the situation, the department is finalising the audit of its assets so as to release equipment required for the connectivity of health facilities.
In registering the 16-year-old citizens, the department was 32% on target in issuing IDs to them. In registering all the categories I mentioned earlier, the department signed a definite agreement in June 2012 to facilitate the implementation of the new national identity system.
Shareholder forums have been launched in over 250 municipalities over the past years, bringing together communities, local governments, provinces and national departments. These forums monitor the local offices of the department, help detect and solve problems and fight corruption. They ensure that even the most vulnerable person gets access to Home Affairs services and that the key messages around the NPR campaign gets filtered through to grass-roots level.
In general, it is important that the acquisition of permanent residence and citizenship by foreigners should be managed in a way that ensures that national security and public safety is not compromised, and that the achievement of development goals is advanced.
In this regard, we welcome the initiative to establish a single national identity system that includes every citizen and foreigner who lives or has lived in South Africa, whatever their status. We are in support of securing such a system through the use of biometrics, including digital photographs, fingerprints and signatures. This system should be designed to prevent any fraudulent change to a person's status and its key component should be a secure register of citizens.
In combination with the live capture of biometrics and smart card technology, a single national identity system should be the backbone of the government and can make service delivery more efficient, accessible, transparent, secure and cost-effective. It will also be a powerful instrument for combating domestic and international crime, fraud and corruption. Several government departments, and recently the banks, are already linked to the Home Affairs National Identification System, Hanis.
In conclusion, the security of the identity of citizens needs all of us to work together. We therefore call on mothers to register their children at birth and for the department to expedite the rolling-out of linking all hospitals to the national birth registration online system. Again, we make a call to all South Africans who have attained the age of 16 to apply for and collect their ID books promptly, without unreasonable delay.
We extend the same call to all South Africans in our communities to participate in the Home Affairs stakeholder forums so that all fraudulent acquisitions of enabling documents can be prevented and combated. In the same vein, we sound a firm warning to some officials who persist in fraudulent issuing of enabling documents to desist from breaking the law and putting our NPR in jeopardy. We support the initiatives taken by the department to ensure that all people in South Africa are and feel free. The ANC supports the Budget Vote. [Applause.]