While home affairs IT systems have become synonymous with the “offline” tagline, this can’t be the case in the age of technological advancements, such as artificial intelligence.
So said newly-appointed home affairs minister Dr Leon Schreiber, delivering his maiden budget vote in Parliament yesterday.
The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) experiences interruptions and network downtime issues more often than not, with the blame sometimes placed on government IT agency SITA’s doorstep.
Furthermore, the DHA – whose core function is to manage the identity, civil status and migration of citizens – has to contend with snaking queues at branches and the illegal practice of blocking slots in queues to resell to members of the public, among other issues.
As a result, ensuring a stable online system is an urgent priority, said Schreiber. “It is unacceptable that, in the year 2024 and in the age of artificial intelligence, we still do not have a reliable IT system at home affairs.
“The days of ‘system offline’ need to come to an end, because I want to be the minister of ‘system online’. In order to achieve this, we need to embrace modern technological solutions.
“One of the options under consideration is the recommendations from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to optimise the department’s IT infrastructure network.”
Steady progress?
In addressing the system downtime challenge, the minister reported that the first set of offices have been upgraded to fibre, ensuring operating speeds at 1Gbps throughout.
This has been enabled by migrating home affairs to the South African National Research Network (SANReN).
The SANReN group is responsible for the design, acquisition and rollout of national and international capacity for the network, as well as the development and incubation of advanced services.
It forms part of a South African government approach to cyber infrastructure, geared at ensuring the successful participation of South African researchers in the global knowledge production endeavour. SANReN is managed and implemented by the CSIR’s Next-Generation Enterprises and Institutions cluster.
According to the minister, the migration to SANReN has resulted in “notable” enhancements and improvements at the DHA Wynberg office in Cape Town, as well as the Menlyn, Cresta and Pavilion offices.
In addition, progress has been made in extending the fibre network to other key locations at the King Shaka International Airport, uMngeni and Soshanguve offices, where fibre network installation is complete, he revealed.
“While these examples demonstrate it is possible to overcome the problems that result in unacceptable periods of system downtime, we need to dramatically speed up our work in the area of technological improvements.
“The problem of long queues must be similarly tackled. While technological upgrades will also assist in this regard, I intend to review the way in which queues are managed at home affairs offices, to identify appropriate business process reforms that optimise the online booking system and better manage queues on the ground.”
To mitigate the challenge of long queues, the DHA introduced the Branch Appointment Booking System, or BABS, in June 2022.
Schreiber said another way to shorten queues at home affairs offices is by expanding the DHA’s footprint and taking services closer to the people through infrastructure and mobile trucks.
“I am pleased to report that the project to expand into shopping malls has seen the opening of conveniently-located offices in the Menlyn Mall in Pretoria, Cresta Mall in Johannesburg and Pavilion Mall in eThekwini.
“This will shortly be followed by the opening of a new office inside the Tyger Valley Mall in the Western Cape, as well as modernised services at the Stellenbosch office. We will work with the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure to address the stalled construction of modernised offices in Taung in the Northern Cape, Thohoyandou in Limpopo and KwaDukuza in KwaZulu-Natal.
“We have also relocated services to a new office in Chatsworth, following the flooding of offices there. The department’s additional 100 mobile trucks that were recently launched by president Cyril Ramaphosa are now in operation.”
Digital nomad movement
The minister said positioning the DHA as an engine of economic growth is an apex priority of the Government of National Unity.
Home affairs, he added, has a critical role to play in achieving this vision, by accelerating the reforms introduced by the president through Operation Vulindlela.
“Alongside steps that have already been taken, such as the streamlining of required documents and the introduction of the Trusted Employer Scheme, we will do much more.
“This includes finalisation of the points-based system for work visas, rolling out the remote working and start-up visas, updating the critical skills list more regularly, and making it easier for more tourists to visit our beautiful country and spend their valuable foreign currency right here in South Africa.”
In February, Ramaphosa noted it will take some time before the country can produce enough skilled people to succeed in an ever-changing global economy.
Among the identified solutions, Ramaphosa said government was looking to reform the country’s visa system to attract remote workers, commonly referred to as digital nomads. He indicated this will makes it easier to attract the skills needed by the economy, and promote innovation and entrepreneurship.
Resultantly, the introduction of a remote working visa has been touted as a way to respond to the rapidly-evolving world of work and increasing numbers of skilled workers.
The visa will be granted to a remote worker who wants to work in SA, while being employed by a foreign company.
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