Committee Queries Distribution of Home Affairs Offices Equipped for 'Live' Capture [document]

The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs has called on the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) to investigate the distribution of branches offering “live” capture facilities. The Committee is concerned that the spread should be as equitable as possible, to ensure that people do not have to travel long distances to access these services.
“From the list we have seen, it looks as if the western part of Limpopo, the Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape are prejudiced in terms of having a fully functional office next to them,” said Mr Lemias Mashile, the Chairperson of the Committee. He emphasised that this was even more important now because the department was issuing smart ID cards to the elderly, who should not be made to travel long distances.
The Department was briefing the Committee on the roll out of its Information Technology Modernisation plan, which is aimed at moving the DHA from paper dependent processes to paperless processes. This plan was developed to assist in the fight against corruption and identity theft within the department, as every employee has log-in details that can be traced. “This system was mainly developed to deal with the risk brought about by the use of paper applications, which can be manipulated by officials,” said the DHA Director-General, Mr Mkuseli Apleni.
The fully automated front-end system to process smart ID carts and passports, which started in April 2012, had by October 2013 been rolled out to 127 offices nationally with a further 13 to come on line by the end of March 2015. The DHA said the Eastern Cape and Gauteng have the largest number of offices, with 22 “live” capture offices. KwaZulu-Natal has 21, Western Cape 18, Limpopo 15; Mpumalanga and North West 13 and 11 respectively, and the Northern Cape and Free State have nine.
Meanwhile, the DHA announced that it has partnered with the major South African banks, through the South Africa Banking Risk Information Centre, to do “live” capture for the department. The banks were considered because of their wide reach throughout the country.
The Committee accepted and appreciated the partnership with the banks, but said the initiative should be implemented with minimal risk to the population register. The Committee resolved to wait for a presentation on the full rollout strategy for the issuing of smart ID cards through the banks before it discusses the matter more fully.

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