What Pandor’s priorities should be

Letter to the Editor/ Opinion Piece

Dear Editor,

What Pandor’s priorities should be

I welcome the appointment of former Science and Technology Minister, Naledi Pandor, to the Home Affairs portfolio. As she settles into her new responsibilities I believe that Minister Pandor should prioritise the following as she starts her new Portfolio: 

• Continue the efforts initiated by Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in transforming the Department of Home Affairs. This includes the completion of the applications turnaround effort to ensure that the process becomes effective and efficient, as well as improving the overall professionalism of its operations.

• Address human rights abuses taking place at centres where refugees and asylum seekers are attempting to legally enter the country. Reports from human rights organisations such as the June 2012 “All Roads lead to Rejection: Persistent Bias and Incapacity in South African Refugee Status Determination” by the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of the Witwatersrand indicate that gross human rights violations take place at these centres to the extent that the department is failing to fulfil its core mandate of administering the asylum system. 

• Appoint personnel based on skills and abilities – not on political affiliation. Many of the problems within the department stem from the fact that officials have been appointed because of their political affiliation and not because they possess the necessary expertise to excel in their positions. This practice deprives the department of the very skills it so desperately requires in order to function more effectively.

• Ensure that officials are accountable, follow legislation and implement decisions made by the courts. At present, Home Affairs demonstrates a general disregard for orders made by the courts and institutions such as the Public Protector. The problem originates because legislation is not always followed, resulting in applicants turning to the courts to have matters resolved. Disregard for the judicial process is so great that even when applicants have obtained court orders, the department is loath to rectify its actions, as illustrated by its recent failure to reopen the Cape Town Refugee Centre to newly arrived asylum seekers.

• Improve the ease with which applications for official documents are made. The department should generally work towards making it as easy and simple as possible for the public to apply for documents and use appropriate technologies to do so. Processes should be automated wherever possible so that members of the public are able to print standard forms for completion and track applications online without having to visit Home Affairs offices. The implementation of processes like these would go a long way towards improving the public’s overall experience during the application process.

As clients of the Department of Home Affairs, South Africans deserve an institution that is run efficiently. The implementation of these basic steps would go a long way towards achieving this.

Yours Sincerely,

Manny de Freitas MP

Member of Parliament

Shadow Minister of Home Affairs

Member of Parliament for Johannesburg South

Democratic Alliance