On 21 June 2011 the Department of Home Affairs presented its budget speech to the National Council of Provinces.

National Population Registration Campaign

The Deputy Minister, Fatima Chohan, commenced the briefing with a summary of the objectives and achievements of the department’s National Population Registration Campaign launched in 2010. The campaign has resulted in increased registration of the birth of infants within 30 days of their being born. More specifically, the campaign has resulted in:

• The extension of online connectivity to 189 public and private hospitals and other health facilities to enable the registration of the birth of all children within 30 days of their birth. Where no connectivity exists, the department has deployed staff to collect registration forms every day, for processing in the department’s offices.
• A commitment from the department to extend this connectivity to many more areas in the coming financial year.
• Between April 2010 and March 2011, over half a million births were registered within 30 days, a further 445 507 babies were registered after 30 days, but before they reached their first birthday, 130 284 children were registered before the age of 15 years and 190 091 were registered after the age of 16 years.

The department notes that the listed successes were only made possible by adopting a collaborative approach which saw the development of multiple partnerships in all provinces through the establishment of stakeholder forums in 254 local government structures.

These forums, made up of stakeholders who volunteer their time, help to monitor and assess performance by officials, identify areas where Home Affairs has no presence, and provide necessary feedback from communities to help improve on the delivery and extension of quality services to people in urban and rural areas.

Refugee management

The briefing noted that South Africa faces critical challenges in meeting its international and continental obligations to refugees, challenges created by a tension between the need to offer asylum to those fleeing their countries due to persecution and maintaining the security and integrity of South Africa’s borders.

To better balance this tension, the department will be reviewing and overhauling its asylum-seeker management process to ensure adequate capacity and expertise at all levels of the process. At the same time, the National Immigration Information System used to register asylum seekers and refugees is being enhanced, and backlogs at the adjudication and review levels are being addressed.

The South African Citizenship, Births and Deaths Registration, Refugees and Immigrations Acts have been amended, and the Amendment Bills will become effective as soon as the regulations governing their implementation have been finalised.

WEB LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE

Click here to view the Department of Home Affair’s budget vote speech.