Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber on Tuesday said his department should urgently embrace technology, or South Africa’s national security would be under threat.
Schreiber said the problems in the issuance of fraudulent visas pointed the department towards a solution that lay in embracing digital transformation in all its facets and across the department.
“It would frankly be a dereliction of duty 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,” he said.
Schreiber made the statement when the department briefed the portfolio committee on the 95 Libyans arrested during a police raid at a training camp in Mpumalanga, and the citizenship of former Miss SA contestant Chidimma Vanessa Adetshina, among other issues.
Schreiber described the two incidents as amounting to nothing less than a threat to national security.
“The point that needs to be made right upfront is that the matters we discuss today are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of a systemic crisis that threatens the national security interests of the Republic.”
Home Affairs systems were vulnerable to fraud, corruption and discretion because they were outdated, antiquated, paper-based, manual and, therefore, open to subversion, Schreiber said.
Briefing the MPs about the Libyans, Border Management Authority (BMA) commissioner Michael Masiapato said the 95 Libyans entered South Africa in four batches between April and May with study visas obtained at South Africa’s mission in Tunisia.
“They had valid documents to enter the country,” he said.
Tommy Makhode, the department’s director-general, said his department picked up lots of irregularities in the issuance of the visas.
“All the applications were submitted by an agent. None (of the Libyans) appeared at the mission,” he said.
Makhode explained that the department did not have a presence in all the 115 foreign missions and that they relied on Dirco officials to process applications in at least 38 missions.
“Capacity constraints are coming back to haunt us.
“There is a need to digitise our system so that we have a single view of applications in the missions.”
He told the MPs that their probe found that the Dirco official issued the handwritten visas without consulting her supervisors.
Makhode said the official had indicated that the system at the mission was off-line when the handwritten visas were issued.
“The application forms used are outdated and do not comply with the forms prescribed.
“There is no indication on some application forms that the applicants were applying for study visas. “However the official decided to grant study visas.”
Meanwhile, Home Affairs counter-corruption unit head Constance Moitse said the investigation into Adetshina’s birth registration was at an advanced stage and now included the involvement of the Hawks.
Moitse said their preliminary investigation found prima facie indications of fraud by Adetshina’s mother.
“We do have evidence received from the hospital, Home Affairs archives and the municipality that points to the real person whose identity was stolen,” she said.
The officials who registered the birth at their offices in Johannesburg have been identified.
But the investigation was continuing before action was taken against them.
“One of the officials has since passed on. The department is investigating two other officials who may have been involved in the alleged fraudulent scheme,” she said.
Moitse said Adetshina’s mother was issued with a Promotion of Administrative Justice Act letter on August 7.
“Her response will determine the final decision that the department will take regarding the ID she was currently carrying.”
Cape Times