Last week, home affairs conducted an intensive strategic planning workshop that brought together the political leadership elected on May 29 and all senior managers from across the country to re-imagine the future we want for our department. The result was the adoption of a bold new vision, anchored in our aspiration for the wholesale digital transformation of home affairs and expressed through a simple concept: Home Affairs @ home.
Home Affairs @ home envisions an ambitious new future where no one ever has to visit a home affairs office in person to access routine services. Instead, all of the department’s services must become fully automated, digitised and offered online at the fingertips of our clients.
This will enable everyone with an internet connection at home to access the department's services online — and it will transform every library or community centre equipped with an internet connection into a virtual home affairs office. While we undertake the process of digital transformation, these reforms will be supplemented by the rapid advancement of existing partnerships with accredited banks and retailers to expand the footprint of home affairs across the length and breadth of the country without incurring the costs and delays of investing in new brick-and-mortar buildings.
Home Affairs @ home will provide the department with a strategic pathway to overcome the crippling resource constraints it faces. Following years of budget cuts necessitated by ill-informed bailouts of state-owned entities, home affairs now has only 40% of the staff required to provide adequate services under the current model that requires every client to physically visit offices for even the most routine transactions. That is not financially sustainable or future proof.
In the context of these funding constraints, the current model also severely overburdens our staff. Improving the working conditions of officials and enabling them to upskill and dedicate their time and talents to serving those who need it most is another reason to urgently pursue digital transformation.
Digital transformation is also essential for home affairs to play its catalytic role in pursuing the apex priority of the government of national unity, which is to grow the economy to create jobs. To attract millions more tourists as well as the investment and skills our economy desperately needs, antiquated, inefficient and paper-based red tape must go.
Adding to the urgency of implementing this vision, is the fact that manual, paper-based processes are the root cause of the corruption and inefficiency in this department. This was vividly exposed by the recent case of Libyan nationals who entered the country for apparent military training after irregularly obtaining handwritten, paper-based visas. National security demands that we automate and digitise the visa application and adjudication process, from end-to-end, without any space for discretion, bias or corruption.
Bringing the vision of Home Affairs @ home to life, will revolutionise government in South Africa. It will propel our country into the digital age and offer vast service improvements to clients in South Africa and abroad.
Clients in need of routine civic services, such as obtaining or replacing an ID, passport or certificate, will be able to apply online through a secure platform linked to their unique biometrics, in the same way that banks and the South African Revenue Service (Sars) already verify transactions.
Travellers who want to visit South Africa will never again be required to fill in a paper-based form or visit a foreign mission to obtain a visa
The application will then be processed through an automated risk engine that only requires human intervention in cases where anomalies are detected. All other cases will be processed automatically, digitally and securely. Once an application is complete, the resultant ID, passport or other enabling document will be shipped directly to the door of the client, regardless of whether they live in South Africa or abroad — as is already done in the case of bank cards and vehicle licences.
Home Affairs @ home will empower every South African to obtain a Smart ID, which will enable the department to discontinue the use of the green ID book that is extremely vulnerable to fraud. In turn, the ubiquity of Smart IDs that will follow will finally enable the department to fully utilise the potential of the card by providing verification services, including for Sassa grant beneficiaries, driver’s licences and other functions.
Travellers who want to visit South Africa will never again be required to fill in a paper-based form or visit a foreign mission to obtain a visa. Instead, they will need to register a profile on the secure online platform in order to submit an application for Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA). The application will be adjudicated instantly, only requiring human intervention if an anomaly is detected by the machine.
As part of the ETA application process, travellers must provide their biometrics. Over time, this system will replace paper-based visas by issuing the traveller with a unique digital code linked to their passport information. Once they arrive at a South African port of entry, travellers will scan their ETA code and provide another copy of their biometric information, which will then be verified against their passport and the information provided at the time of application.
Home Affairs @ home will make a major contribution to restoring the integrity of South Africa’s national security. Using the same biometric technology that already secures smartphones, online banking and other critical platforms, the automated risk engine will identify and prevent attempts at identity fraud.
By integrating biometric information, local and global databases, and travel authorisation with the movement control system at all ports-of-entry under the Border Management Authority, the risk engine will also notify immigration officials in real time whenever a traveller has failed to exit the country by the time their authorisation has expired.
To embed this vision into everything we do from now on, the department is already hard at work on revising its 2024/2025 annual performance plan, updating budget plans, and drafting a new strategic plan for the 2024-2029 term of office.
Once fully implemented, Home Affairs @ home will revolutionise service delivery, supercharge tourism, investment and skills attraction, and restore the integrity of our immigration system.
• Leon Schreiber is minister of home affairs
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.