Home Affairs Budget Vote

Steve Swart MP – ACDP

Tuesday, 11 June 2002

African Christian Democratic Party MP Mr. Steve Swart gave the following speech during the Home Affairs Budget Vote in Parliament today:

Madame Speaker, the total South African population are clients of the Home Affairs Department. This means a life-long association - from the issuing of the birth certificate to registering deaths. Likewise, the entry and the exit of all foreigners who, for whatever reason, visit the country are managed by Home Affairs. It is undeniable therefore that few, if any, other public as well as other private organisations operate within the realm of such a vast client base.

With this in mind, the ACDP is very concerned that the Department was to receive R300 million less than requested[1], and that the nearly R120 million underfunding cited had been identified as "critical to service delivery".

The major problem facing the department continues to be a lack of personnel. The Department has to date been functioning with a fixed establishment approved by the office of the Public Service Commission during 1995, which is comprised of 6 982 posts. Of this establishment 6 252 are filled and 730 are vacant. Since the rationalisation of the Public Service in 1994, which culminated in the demise of the TBVC States the demand for services rendered by the Department increased dramatically. This has resulted in a tremendous challenge for the Department to utilise as far as possible all available resources.
The ACDP agrees that not filling vacancies will result in long queues with resultant dissatisfaction from customers, low staff morale with consequent frequent absenteeism, unnecessary backlogs which will necessitate remunerated overtime, and disruption of efficient and effective service delivery. The department staff need to be commended for their commitment under these very difficult conditions.

I am pleased that the Deputy Minister raised the issue of child pornography. We really need to tighten our legislation to deal with this evil effectively as, “pornography is the theory, but rape is the practise.”

On 20 March 2002, Cabinet adopted the Department's Cabinet Memorandum 3 of 2001, on the establishment of an electoral law task team. The Cabinet Memorandum made provision for financial implications for the work of the task team on the basis of a budget of R450 000. Whilst, by reprioritisation this amount was provided for, the Chairperson of the Electoral Act Review Task Team, in the interim, drew up a budget for the activities of the task team, which amounts to R3,5 million, and which remains unfunded.

The amount of money paid by the HANIS Project in respect of the Forex adjustments is R62,5 million. This shortfall, which can be ascribed to the deteriorating Rand in comparison to other currencies has put serious stress on the HANIS budget. However, the National Treasury was informed of this Forex payments and that the matter will be addressed in the Department's monthly Reporting on the State of Expenditure as well as in the Adjustments Estimate.



A cause for concern is that it was still unclear how much forex fluctuations would increase the cost of HANIS beyond the currently identified R62.5million shortfall. Costs of introducing HANIS "smart cards" was not factored into the current calculations, and that such introduction would be delayed, although the rollout of HANIS technology to capture data at regional offices would proceed. We trust however that the recent strengthening of the rand will serve to alleviate certain of the financial implications caused by forex fluctuations.
In conclusion, the Department recognizes that a number of challenges remain. It will need improved reporting systems, data validation efforts, and programme monitoring and evaluation to achieve the vision of rendering world-class service. The remaining unfunded priorities of the Department will have a serious adverse impact on the department’s capacity to provide the quality of services that our citizens deserve, and we as members of Parliament need to see how we can assist this department in addressing its ongoing inadequate funding.

The ACDP supports the budget vote.

I thank you.



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For further comment please call Steve Swart MP at 083 285 6290 or ACDP Media Liaison Liza Bloemetje at 082 478 1037