Hon Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, and hon members, our citizens will now have to apply for visas to travel to the United Kingdom. For every person who objects to this requirement, with the cost that goes with it, one thought will arise: All of this is on account of Home Affairs, the epicentre of corruption in our country.
Government accepts that corruption involving the department's employees and national and international criminal syndicates has seriously compromised the security of our state, as well as the integrity of the documents issued by the department. It is not sufficient on the policy side to merely look at a national population register to check corruption. A national population register is a step in the right direction but only if it can be effectively implemented. Has it been implemented? What has government to say on it?
Government should also look at amending further the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1997, to include corrupt officials for mandatory minimum sentences of 20 years if found guilty of corrupt practices. Many government officials are the greatest enemies of the state and the greatest lawbreakers.
Nepal has now introduced pocketless trousers for customs officials to prevent them from slipping bribes into their pockets. Government should also have established a hotline to allow for easy and instant reporting of corrupt practices. A special police unit should also have been in existence to bring corrupt employees and syndicate members to book.
Cope believes that a passport should only be issued to a person who has resided permanently at a given address for a certain length of time and who can furnish a family tree. The department should also require that utility bills in the person's name to prove long-standing occupancy, driving licences, banking details, title deeds, marriage certificates, school, college and university reports, payslips, etc, be furnished. Special accredited commissioners of oaths, who know the applicant personally and can vouch for him or her from personal knowledge, should verify the accuracy of the records before they are submitted to the department.
We would also like to see an array of biometric technologies being implemented in the travel and identity documents Home Affairs issues to improve airport security, strengthen our nation's borders and prevent identity document theft. We have also read in departmental documents about Home Affairs developing IT applications for advanced passenger information and advanced passenger profiling systems. Has this been developed and was it piloted during the 2009 Fifa Confederations Cup? If so, how effective was it? If a television crew was to descend on any Home Affairs office tomorrow anywhere in the country, it would record how nothing has changed though everything has changed. It is beyond the capacity of government to detect that which any journalist can dig up without great effort. Surely a policy should have evolved to improve waiting time and to stop intermediaries from functioning inside or outside Home Affairs offices.
Finally, what is government's attitude to negotiating with role-players regarding the right to use polygraph tests? We cannot afford to do too little, too late. I thank you. [Applause.]