There is no “magic wand” to immediately fix all of the Department of Home Affairs' issues, but new Minister Leon Schreiber says he has identified clearing visa backlogs, improving the Department’s IT systems and restoring dignity to its processes, as priorities.

In his first action as Minister of Home Affairs just one day after taking office, Schreiber extended the temporary concession for foreign nationals awaiting the outcome of visa, waiver or appeal applications. 

Schreiber said the waiver was an opportunity to start to address the visa backlog that stands at 143 000 applications.

“It’s important to use the window to make sure that the backlog is substantially reduced, if not cleared.”

“It’s a huge number of people that are impacted and these are people who are trying to follow the law. They are trying to go through the right processes and they risked facing adverse consequences if the extension was not granted,” he said.

Schreiber said his department has three key functions: civic, which deals with issuing birth, death and marriage certificates; security, with a focus on immigration and border security; and a “critical” economic enabler function.

“For the tourism sector, that is going to be very relevant,” he said.

"I will be seeking a balance between these different functions, not leaving behind the economic potential of this department".

But, it won’t be easy.

“There is no magic wand. Everyone who has had to deal with the department in various ways knows that the problems are serious, and that there won’t be an overnight solution. But what I would like to do is restore dignity to the process.”

‘Intricately tied to people’s lives’

Home Affairs is intricately tied to people’s lives, he said.

“You get a birth certificate, a death certificate, and a certificate when you get married. All of these are very personal things. Not to mention the experience that tourists have when they interact with the department.”

Schreiber outlined some key priorities which he has identified, which he will fund using the adjustment budget process taking place later this year.

These include shortening queues in Home Affairs offices and tackling major IT issues which consistently bedevil the Department.

“For the tourism sector, it’s clearing the visa backlog. If we can do that, we can look at how we can improve the administration of visa applications. We must not only prevent a backlog from happening again, but also make it easier to get tourists and people bringing critical skills and investment into South Africa.”

While Schreiber said it was still too early to discuss issues impacting specific tourism markets like China and India, he said “there’s a big category of problems that falls into the basket of embracing technological solutions. The overall thrust is clear already, we are going to be looking at technological solutions.”

“Sometimes that will be physical hardware issues, other times it will be processing, finding ways that technology can help us cut out steps”.

Administrative burden ‘significant’

He said the administrative burden on Home Affairs staff was significant.

“Staff are overburdened by processes that are manual and don’t make full use of technology. I think there is a win-win solution in dealing with the fact that Home Affairs is understaffed, improving the job environment and improving the outcomes in terms of visas.”

When asked if Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille or any of the tourism sector bodies had been in touch yet, Schreiber admitted that he hadn’t yet had an opportunity to work through the thousand-plus emails and messages that had arrived in his inbox in his first week in the post.

“My door is certainly wide open to her (De Lille) but also to everyone else in the tourism industry and more broadly, stakeholders in the sector. In the past, people have felt quite excluded from these processes and I’d like to find ways to open the door and work together in a more constructive way.”

He said he would be exploring a more collaborative and consultative way of doing things and would be using a “go see for yourself approach” to managing his new portfolio.