Minister Leon Schreiber: Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs

To safeguard national security, we must digitally transform Home Affairs delivered by Minister Leon Schreiber to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs

Honourable Members,

We are here today because we take the role of Parliament very seriously.

Over the past few weeks, both the deputy minister and I have faced questions from the media asking for updates on the matters we will discuss today.

We have repeatedly responded by saying that Parliament is the only forum that represents all the people of South Africa, and that we will disclose the full picture to the people’s representatives here first, once we are ready, because of our respect for this institution.

I therefore wish to the thank Honourable Chairperson Chabane and the committee for this opportunity to confirm that it is to Parliament that we will primarily account at all times.

Having said that, the reality of what we will present today should shock all of us.

What you will see amounts to nothing less than a threat to national security that can only be addressed through the total and sustained digital transformation of Home Affairs into a digital-first department.

The point that needs to be made right up front is that the matters we will discuss today are not isolated incidents.

They are symptoms of a systemic crisis that threaten the national security interests of the Republic.

To paraphrase Shakespeare in Hamlet: something is rotten in the state of South Africa.
Instead of viewing these as isolated events, we need to regard these matters as case studies that illustrate a far deeper crisis at the very heart of our state.

These case studies provide us with valuable information about the root causes of the enormous challenges we face.

But, more hopefully, they also point us towards the solution, which lies in embracing digital transformation in all its facets, and across the organisation of Home Affairs.
I therefore want to take Parliament into my confidence today by sharing what we have concluded based on the information our diligent investigators have uncovered.

Beyond the specifics of the individual cases, which the Director-General will present shortly, there are a number of general lessons we must take very seriously.

The number one lesson from these cases is that the lack of a modern digital system to process all applications, adjudications and communication at Home Affairs is the root cause of the national security threat we face in this sector.

The common denominator you will see in all of these presentations is that Home Affairs systems are vulnerable to fraud, corruption and discretion because they are outdated, antiquated, paper-based, manual and, therefore, open to subversion.
You will see how Libyan nationals obtained visas that were written by hand.

How can South Africa regard ourselves as a serious nation when we still allow entrance into our country based on hand-written documents that even a child could forge?
You will see how visa applications were processed even though they did not contain all of the requisite documentation.

How can South Africa regard ourselves as a serious nation when we refuse to embrace something as simple as online applications, which will never even allow a user to click “submit” if the application is not complete?

You will see how applications were approved without verifying the information contained in the application.

How can South Africa regard ourselves as a serious nation when we fail to use modern technology like machine learning that can verify the authenticity of a document better than any human being ever could?

You will also see how Home Affairs is reliant on officials from another government department to process applications at foreign missions.

How can it be that we have allowed this vital department to be gutted financially to the point where it has only 40% of the staff members it requires to do its job?

How can it be that we expect Home Affairs to do its job – or indeed to hold the Minister accountable – when Home Affairs does not even have effective management control over some of the officials processing visa applications at foreign missions?

Which person on earth could justify the use of such an antiquated, broken and vulnerable system when we live in the year 2024, with technology at our fingertips that could instantly solve each and every one of these problems?

It would frankly be a dereliction of duty on the part of everyone in this room if we do not move with urgency to digitally transform Home Affairs.

If we collectively fail to do so, the repercussions for national security will be on all of our hands.
This brings me to the second lesson from these case studies, which is simply this: until such time as Home Affairs has been transformed into a digital-first department, these abuses will keep happening and the system will remain offline.

Let me repeat.
Incidents of identity theft, long queues, visa fraud and corruption will keep happening, over and over and over again, forever, if we fail to digitally transform Home Affairs.

I put it to this committee that your job of holding myself, the deputy minister and the department to account will be rendered nearly impossible in the absence of the digital transformation we are proposing.

Because I can tell you honestly and sincerely that instances like these – and potentially much worse – will keep happening for as long as Home Affairs processes are manual, paper-based and vulnerable to human discretion.

For as long as we fail to use technology to make up for the capacity shortfall and close the gaps for human discretion, it is not a question of “if” abuses will be exposed.
It is only a matter of “when.”

If we allow things to continue as they are, Home Affairs will simply remain a department of firefighters.

We will appear before Parliament over and over again for the next five years to account on how we are putting out fires.

Then some of us will leave, and the fires will continue burning ever brighter.

If we do not take bold steps now to turn Home Affairs into a digital-first department, we will be wasting each other’s time for the next five years.

The pattern will be this: an abuse will happen, people will be outraged, Home Affairs will investigate, we will account before this committee – and then it will happen all over again the next week.

That is no way to run a government.

It is time for Home Affairs to be given the tools and support we urgently require to not only put out fires as we have done in these recent cases, but to also start preventing fires into the future.

And I do not doubt for a second that #TeamHomeAffairs can do this.

Just look at the sterling work being done by our team on a permitting backlog that had been accumulating for a decade.

This work is being done because we are focused on a clear goal, working collaboratively with partners in other departments and sectors of society, and embracing technology.

The progress of the backlog project demonstrates that officials at Home Affairs are indeed capable of solving seemingly intractable problems if they are given the leadership, support and resources required.

That is why I submit to this committee that if we want to not only put out fires, but actually start preventing fires like fraud, identity theft, illegal immigration, backlogs and a visa regime that fails to attract skills, capital and tourism, then now is the time to support digital transformation as the apex priority for this department, in this administration.

Indeed, the third observation from these incidents is that, if we fail to digitally transform Home Affairs, the costs to the people of South Africa will become unbearable and will continue to be felt for decades to come.

The indications of identity theft our investigators uncovered in the investigation requested by Miss SA happened 23 years ago.

Once again, it is only possible for someone to steal an ID number or engage in fraudulent activity like swopping out photos because the system has gaps that allow for human intervention.

Yet here we are, dealing with the ramifications of something that is alleged to have happened 23 years ago, while the same thing continues to happen every day through the syndicates that treat our South African citizenship as something to be stolen, abused and trampled upon.

If we allow a situation where our successors in this committee sit here in another 23 years from now, dealing with the same issues, we would have failed dismally.

Honourable members,
South Africa can solve this problem, because we have done it before.

Just look to the story of how the South African Revenue Service embraced digital transformation to become not only one of the best state entities in the country, but to also become one of the most effective tax authorities in the world.

We have done it before.

The time has come for Home Affairs to do it again.

Just imagine if, instead of talking about the latest cases of abuse knowing that this will just be repeated again next week and next month, we were sitting here today to introduce the committee to a digital platform that allows for continuous, real-time auditing of the population register.

Some people have called for an audit to be done on the register.

I can tell you right now: such an audit is impossible with the paper-based, fragmented and antiquated systems we are still using.

Such an audit is only possible if you have the information of every person who is inside this country, integrated into a modern digital platform.

If we had that, we could go much further than some once-off audit.

We would be able to audit in real time, verifying the information of any person in the country in an instant.

A digital platform to process all applications, adjudication and communication in the same way that SARS does, would not only restore our national security.

It would create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

By fixing our visa adjudication system, a platform built on machine learning would enable us to process applications within seconds in a watertight manner, without any space for fraud.

Just think about how we could grow tourism, attract skills, and facilitate investment with such a system.

And, of course, queues and system downtime would become a thing of the past if we embrace digital transformation, enabling people who need IDs, passports or birth certificates to apply from the comfort of their own homes – just like they already do through online banking or e-filing.

Honourable members,
We stand before a fork in the road.

We could decide to continue with things the way that they are, in which case we would doom South Africa’s national security and spend the next five years dealing with abuses but never preventing them.

Or we could boldly go into the future by embracing digital transformation to decisively deal with fraud and corruption while fixing service delivery and creating jobs.

I know which one I choose, and I hope you will reach the same conclusion after today’s meeting.

And then we must move with urgency.

Sooner rather than later, I want to tear up the last application form with a Home Affairs logo on it as we become a digital-first department that protects the sovereignty of this country.

South Africa always defies expectations when we work together with one purpose.

At Home Affairs we are determined to prove this once again, by working together towards a clear and unambiguous goal: to rapidly transform this department into a digital-first organisation where fraud and corruption is not only combatted, but where it is prevented. This is how we will make Home Affairs work so that South Africa can work.

Thank you.