Chairperson, it is always a privilege to participate in a Budget debate, and tonight I am enormously privileged to do so. I want to thank all of you for being here this evening, at this late hour, supporting us in your various ways. My task here today is to elaborate on, as the Minister said previously, asylum seeker and refugee management, legal services and the Film and Publication Board.
Let me begin by saying to hon members that, as a country, we remain committed very firmly to our obligations in terms of the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. We do so because we believe that affording protection to those fleeing from persecution in their countries of origin contributes ultimately to a better, more caring, more peaceful world. Our own country's experience speaks volumes about the wisdom of this position.
The Minister and very many of our leaders were, at one time, asylum seekers, and we should not forget that when things normalised and stabilised in this country, they came back as enormous resources to our country to assist us all to develop and become the peaceful democracy we are. This is no small achievement.
However, it is correct that South Africa faces serious challenges in adjudicating the claims of asylum seekers and extending assistance to those granted refugee status. In 2010, 180 000 people applied for asylum in South Africa. This unprecedented demand for asylum has overwhelmed the system and opened it to further abuse from economic migrants, as the hon Mnisi said, and, as a consequence, the adjudication of these applications often takes years to finalise, resulting in backlogs. The hon Mnisi has explored the different challenges in this regard, and I am not going to traverse them again. I am just going to go straight to what our strategy is to deal with some of these challenges.
Firstly, ours is to improve the processes by which the adjudication and review of claims are conducted. Already we have seen some successes in this strategy, except for the two refugee centres in Pretoria. I am pleased to report that, since September 2011, the turnaround time and quality of adjudication of new applications in the Durban, Musina and Cape Town refugee reception centres have improved drastically and status determinations are now made in these centres within three months. These pertain to the new applications. Of course, there are backlogs, and we will have to then deal with those as well. Our focus now is, of course, to ensure that the Pretoria centres also achieve these standards.
Our further challenge is to ensure that those individuals whose applications for asylum have been rejected are deported timeously. Measures to address this challenge are being investigated. Amongst others, discussions have been held with the International Organisation for Migration, IOM, on a possible partnership to extend and implement their voluntar repatriation programmes out of our refugee reception centres.
Our second strategy is to address the problem of corruption, by working together with law enforcement and security agencies at national, provincial and local levels. The third strategy being implemented is to engage in bilateral and multilateral co-operation with countries through which asylum seekers transit. In international law the principle is firmly established that asylum seekers should apply in the first safe country they enter. This principle requires a regional approach to be established and implemented effectively.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, has declared a Notice of Cessation of Refugee Status of Angolan Refugees which will come into effect on 30 June 2012. We will implement this according to UNHCR guidelines and through a collective regional approach.
Coming to our Legal Services Unit, we have made some strides in our contracts unit. Most of the contracts that the department engages in are now vetted by the Legal Services Unit, saving the department millions of rands. The Legal Services Unit is also in the process of finalising regulations to a number of amended Acts, including the Refugees Amendment Act, Act 12 of 2011 and the Immigration Amendment Act, Act 13 of 2011.
With regard to civil litigation, people may know that we are one of the most litigated departments. With the exception of cases emanating from Lindela, the department has won 42 out of the 46 cases that were finalised during the 2011-12 financial year. The Lindela cases pose a very big challenge to us. Due to a lack of co-operation from certain foreign nationals and lengthy processes to verify the country of origin and status of these individuals, it is not always possible to release or deport these deportees within 120 days, as required by law, simply because they are in our country illegally. New and innovative solutions must be found and are needed to ensure that these processes are accelerated and to enable the department to be in compliance with the legislation. We will certainly put a huge focus on that.
With regard to contingent liabilities, the amount in rand value of potential claims against the department has been reduced significantly in the last year, from R6,2 billion, which would have been the claims against the department, to R1,3 billion this year.
The budget of the Department of Home Affairs also includes funding for the Film and Publication Board, the FPB, which is tasked with providing society with information that will enable adults to make informed decisions on published material they choose to view whilst, at the same time, protecting minors from being exposed to adult content. The FPB attaches age restrictions and content warnings to all film, magazines and gaming material distributed in the country.
The role of the FPB should be understood in the context of giving concrete expression to our constitutional rights and also for its role in furthering the values of a caring society, a society that celebrates its diversity, as opposed to promoting things like hate speech in the name of freedom to information. This includes the right of children to be protected in their youth.
The restrictions placed on gaming material and other content should be regarded as a very serious issue, especially when we consider the mass killing last year in Norway, where the killer of 77 people, Anders Breivik, reported that a computer game which is quite popular amongst young people, called "The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare", assisted him to condition himself for this shooting and bombing rampage. Now, this is an adult. We have to contemplate what these things do to our children who are impressionable. So, age restrictions on games, in particular, should be something that parents all over South Africa - in fact, all over the world - should be worried about and should pay more attention to.
The FPB has in the last financial year implemented outreach programmes across the country on cybersafety. This crucial work will continue in 2012- 13. In this regard, we are very pleased to announce the commencement of the review of the Classification Guidelines used by the FPB, and there is a consultative process which I hope that Members of Parliament, in particular, will take to their constituencies, popularise, and ensure that every single South African contributes to these discussions.
Finally, we want to say that we are very proud to join the Independent Electoral Commission, IEC, the FPB, and the Government Printing Works, as the Department of Home Affairs also now has a clean audit. As such, and under the very able and wise leadership our Minister, we look forward to bigger and better things. Thank you very much. [Applause.]