Hon Chairperson, we have been blessed to have had the services of a great African and South African, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who had taken over the reins at a critical time - a time when the Home Affairs department was struggling. It was a department which did not deliver adequately to our people, a department not really appreciated by the people. She turned the tide and the people took notice. We were sad to lose her, but happy that she went to make her considerable talents available to serve all the people of our great continent.
Now, yet again, we are blessed to have the services of another great African and South African who has shown her mettle in the past and is showing her mettle again by consolidating our gains and demonstrating fresh ideas to solve the remaining problems we have, contrary to what hon De Freitas has suggested. [Applause.]
What are these gains that have been made? Home Affairs is on track to achieve the annual target of 594 000 births registered within 30 days. The annual target of 80 additional health facilities connected for on-line registrations of births and deaths is likely to be achieved. The department is eradicating late registrations of births. By the end of the third quarter, 79% of the target for issuing IDs to the 16-year-olds and older will be achieved. The ID smart card is well on track as the Minister has indicated. The unabridged birth certificate was launched on 4 March.
Steps have been taken to strengthen co-ordination, security and efficiency at Cape Town Harbour with the design and renovation of a building that will house all departments that function in the marine environment. This will assist in developing a management model for all ports of entry.
The newly established learning academy has delivered certified courses of high quality to officials, including a National Certificate: Home Affairs, which has been piloted with 272 officials.
The settlement of invoices within 30 days has increased from 54% to 86%.
The most reliable evidence of improved service delivery comes from our citizens who are at the coalface of Home Affairs services. I am told by those I come across who have had recent experiences with Home Affairs that these were good experiences. They have witnessed the improvements. They are impressed with the provision of the new offices in areas that were not serviced before, with the refurbishment of many of the Home Affairs offices and the improvement in the flow of customers due to the introduction of electronic queue management. They now see Home Affairs as a functional department providing excellent services to the people. This is more or less where we are.
Where are we heading? We are guided by a clear plan. The Department of Home Affairs is driven by three strategic outcomes of government, namely that all people in South Africa should be and feel safe; that we need a skilled and capable workforce; that we also need an efficient and effective, development-orientated Public Service and an empowered, fair and inclusive citizenry. I want to focus on a few concrete elements of these outcomes.
Any serious modern country's immigration dispensation focuses on the attraction of foreign skills in the national interest, the easy entry, stay and exit of legitimate visitors, and the strict and effective control of illegal entrants. This is what our approach should be. This is where we are still lacking to some extent, as the Minister has also indicated. Also, this is where we need and want to and will improve.
I get the impression that we sometimes think that South Africa is such a preferred destination for people with critical scarce skills. We think that everyone is queuing to come here to this haven. This is not always true. In some ways, instead of attracting scarce skills by making it easy and attractive for those with these sought-after skills to come and stay here, we do the opposite. The bureaucratic mountain to climb makes many turn away and go to more receptive countries. This is not in our own interest and this does not serve our goals of fighting poverty and creating jobs. We need to change this, and the Minister has indicated our plans to do that.
As South Africans, we should be careful not to be unwelcoming and arrogant to foreigners. The Deputy President of Zambia went too far and crossed the line when he generalised about South Africans and their attitudes. We should not ignore the fact that we have a special responsibility to act with humility and not to create wrong impressions.
The Deputy Minister mentioned Angola and its rapid growth rate of 7%. The other night I had dinner at a Cape Town restaurant. I was served by a very smart young man from Angola who is doing a degree in information technology at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He told me that as soon as he graduates he will return to Angola, his reasons being that wherever he goes in South Africa, it's all about where you come from. The opposite is true about Angola. According to him the money is in Angola anyway, not here, as he put it, and that has been demonstrated by the 7% growth rate.
I am cautioning that we South Africans need to be careful of how we conduct ourselves. We can't be complacent and think that we have a birthright to being the preferred destination for those with desired skills. We will have to work hard to maintain what we have. It is by no means guaranteed.
We are told that the department will contribute to the level of skills and general economic development in South Africa by realising a positive skills migration trend of around 50 000 migrants per year. Also, we are told that work permits will be issued to foreigners that graduate in South Africa, as the Minister has indicated. We understand that we can expect highly skilled professionals and caring staff that are security conscious and fully committed to serving the people of South Africa to contribute to this objective. Most certainly, we support this approach, but will also monitor its implementation carefully, as we have always done.
The considerable delays in the issuing of temporary and permanent residence permits have to come to an end. The Minister addressed that matter as well. Last year, during the budget debate, I mentioned someone who waited seven years for a permanent residence permit and then got hers within a week after she stumbled across me by accident when I went to the Department of Home Affairs. Surely, this is as unacceptable as the case of Heike Ozelek, who has been waiting for hers for a long time.
So when the department has this laudable objective, but we are told in the document they presented to us that they only have a 50% target of issuing permanent residence permits within eight months, then one needs to ask: How long are the other 50% of people going to have to wait?
The same applies to the 15% of temporary residence permit applicants whose permits will, according to the department, not be issued within eight weeks during the course of this year, if at all possible. The director-general is here and listening. We would much rather want to see all temporary and permanent residence permits issued within eight months and eight weeks, respectively. We will then really become a drawcard for critical skills.
We welcome the Minister's announcement pertaining to the growth of the unit dealing with temporary and permanent residence permits, as this will certainly alleviate the situation.
In view of this and other problems with service delivery, we also welcome the establishment of the learning academy, although we expected nothing less of our able former Minister of Education. This academy and the introduction of a strong monitoring and evaluation function to manage performance are important steps. But there is a condition: There has to be adequate rewards for performance and achievement and consequences for continued failure.
We get the idea that all the staff in the department, and certainly some of those dealing with the issuing of certain documents, are not functioning optimally. If people such as these get training and coaching opportunities, as the department is planning, and are cautioned to change their attitude, they will simply have to shape up or ship out.
Our coastline security and that of our harbour ports remains a concern. The initiative in the Cape Town Harbour, which we are told will be rolled out to other harbours, is welcome. We hope to see plans soon to also address the adequate safeguarding of our coastline, which is still largely unprotected.
As far as our land borders are concerned, the proposed establishment of the Border Management Agency is most certainly a step in the right direction. We need to be in a position in the near future where all foreigners moving around in our country are accounted for. We cannot accept free-rangers any longer.
The Minister and the Department of Home Affairs have also committed themselves to effective and efficient refugee management strategies and systems. This is by no means an insignificant commitment, given the problems we have in this area. We have to get clarity on where refugee reception offices should be located. We need properly furbished offices that function efficiently. And we need to take a decision on how to deal with the economic migrants of the Southern African Development Community, SADC, countries who sometimes claim to be refugees.
Our view is that a special economic migrant visa - the Minister calls it a "work-seeker visa", but whatever we call it or however we phrase it - should be considered for SADC citizens. This will relieve the pressure on our refugee services, but more importantly, it will contribute to the economic integration of Southern Africa. Although the challenges we face are vast, they are not unassailable. At least all of us, including the Minister and the department, know what the remaining challenges are, admit these challenges - you heard the Minister earlier - and are willing to meet these challenges head-on. There is a plan. There is a course of action. Our portfolio committee will continue to persistently point to the problems we see and, with the Minister and the department, make sure that these problems are solved.
I would like to thank the chairperson, hon Maggie Maunye, and all the members of our portfolio committee. We are a well-meaning, well-functioning team that have the best interests of our country at heart. Except, it seems, when some of us come into the limelight of this particular House. In this regard I refer especially to the hon De Freitas. The hon De Freitas we saw today in this House is someone else, someone different from the one constructive man we know in the portfolio committee. And he is also quite different from his colleague, the hon Mnqasela, who has today given constructive input here. He has lauded the department for the good work that we are doing.
He indicated that most people think that this is one of the best departments, and then he pointed to certain problems and mentioned a few of the vacancy rates of the department. He referred to the people acting, and that we should have fewer people in acting positions. We all agree with that and we actually all agree with the other points that he made. Some of them may be more valid than others, but all these points are indeed important.
These are some of the problems that I pointed out to the Deputy Minister and that have to be solved. And we acknowledge these problems and know that they should be addressed. He referred to matters; I think the committee is almost in agreement with that; that should be addressed.
The hon De Freitas comes here and says that no new announcement has been made, the department is only banking on the successes of the past. Well, let's see what the Minister did, in fact, say. She announced the introduction date of the ID smart card - it's a new announcement, hon De Freitas.
She announced the introduction of the Border Management Agency and announced the work-seekers visa for citizens of the SADC and the work permit for those with critical skills graduating in South Africa - all new announcements. Now, was the hon De Freitas not in the same House with us when the Minister spoke earlier, or did he just decide to stick to his prepared speech to impress his party and his colleagues? [Laughter.] He goes on to ask how the department will meet the target; for example, 50 000 foreigners with skills attracted to South Africa.
The Minister acknowledged the problems with the issuing of temporary and permanent residence permits, and she also acknowledged other problems and did not pretend that everything is hunky-dory in this department. She said how some of these problems will be solved, as I mentioned earlier, namely that the unit dealing with these matters will be strengthened. Now, once again, did the hon De Freitas not hear what she was saying, or did he not care to listen? [Laughter.] Then he refers to the legal fees of the department being high. I think that he knows that a department such as this particular one which deals with contentious matters like immigration, refugees, asylum seekers, there will be a high degree of litigation.
If one has to resort to this type of argument to concoct an attack on the government, it shows how weak one's ammunition happens to be. [Laughter.]