Speaking notes for briefing to the media by Home Affairs Director-General Mkuseli Apleni regarding the administration of the department, Arcadia House, 909 Arcadia Street, Arcadia, Pretoria

5 Jul 2011

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, in our weekly briefing today we will be looking at issues related to the administration of the department. We apologise for organising our weekly briefing earlier than the usual Thursday briefing, due to other engagements that we will be having on Thursday.

Let me begin by reminding you of President Jacob Zuma's commitment to the nation during his Address to Parliament on 10 February 2011 that government will fill all vacant posts within six (6) months. As part of this national commitment, the Department of Home Affairs is responsible for filling 1 118 vacant posts.

In this regard, as many of you would know, the department has since 2007 been engaged in a process of reviewing and re-orientating our approach towards quality service delivery.

A necessary part of this review and re-orientation was a skills audit within the department which included a re-assessment of the entry levels into the department.

Our findings indicated that many of our front line posts were occupied by officials with minimum skills with particular reference to problem solving techniques, at salary-level three (3). It also affected our high turnover of staff who left our employ looking for better economic prospects.

As you would know, jobs are graded in government according to skills competencies. In this regard, our front office posts were upgraded to the current level six.

However, again as many of you would know, our front-line office staff represents the customer's first encounter with the department. This interaction also forms the basis of the client's perception of his or her experience of the department and services rendered.

Accordingly, as part of the comprehensive turnaround strategy required in the department, we upgraded the entry level of our frontline staff to level 6 and introduced the requirements for employment to grade 12. However, a post-matric qualification as well as relevant experience of three to five (3-5) years would be an added advantage.

This was the first step towards redressing deficiencies in our human resource capacity which has a fundamental impact on the service delivery within the department.

The next was to ensure we had the necessary staff to enable the department to function optimally. I think that even up to two weeks ago, the Head of Human Resources, Deputy Director-General Avril Williamson indicated that we are still in the process of ensuring we employ the sufficient number of officials to ensure we can meet our service delivery targets.

In line with this the department advertised five hundred and fifty eight (558) vacant positions nationwide for civic services in May 2011. The advertisement stipulated the requirements for successful employment, including among others, a grade 12 certificate while a post matric qualification would be considered an added advantage. To say we received tens of thousands of applications for these five hundred and fifty eight (558) would be an understatement.

As part of this process, we also had to inform the contract workers that had been employed as an interim measure towards meeting our human resource requirements that their contracts would come to end on 30 June 2011.

Officials who were employed on a contract basis were asked to acknowledge receipt of this communication in writing which confirmed that the employee was cognisant of the terms attached to their employment. In terms of this correspondence, the employer indicated that it was not obliged to renew the contracts of these contract workers, nor indeed were the officials guaranteed employment in the department.

However, of the five hundred and fifty eight (558) posts that were advertised all 104 permanent jobs have been awarded to those who served in a contract capacity within the department. These 104 candidates were successful because they met the department's criteria for employment. The remaining four hundred and fifty four (454) posts were filled by external candidates.

We are convinced that working together, ourselves as the management of the Department, our staff and the public whom we are charged with the responsibility to serve can do more to improve service delivery to each of clients.

Questions and answers

Question: DG, how do you go about advertising posts - through normal media or do you use recruitment agencies?

Answer (DDG Williamson): We use various media around the country to advertise posts through various newspapers.

Question: DG, you said that as part of this process, contract workers were informed that their contracts were coming to an end on 30 June 2011. Today, as we speak, contract workers on month to month contracts are protesting at your Watloo offices saying they only today learnt they are no longer employed. Are you aware of this?Had you entered into monthly contracts?

Answer (Director-General): We called this media briefing so we could brief you properly on this issue. As you know, we have said that the Department had a new structure where we upgraded the posts of the frontline employees who were on level three. We engaged in a process to upgrade these positions but this process took time. So in the interim, until the process of job grading could be finalised, we employed contract workers to meet our service delivery imperatives.

The first thing that we did is to ensure that people who had served the Department for longer than one year in 2009, they would be absorbed into the Department. Those with less than a year of service would be released at the end of their contracts. However, once the posts were advertised, they would have the opportunity to apply in that open process.

Then, based on this, at the end of March 2011 when the process of advertising and filling the posts was not completed, the Department wrote this letter to each contract worker which has been signed by themselves.

I will just read the important paragraph: "Without creating the expectation of permanent employment, the Department hereby wishes to offer you a new contract that will expire on 30 June 2011. Should you decide to continue rendering services, this does not entitle you to permanent employment, nor should it be interpreted as creating a legitimate expectation to permanent employment beyond 30 June 2011."

So it means that be the end of March 2011 every one on a contract was informed and they could decide to leave the Department or decide to continue doing the work knowing full well that their contracts would end at the end of June 2011. So employees were informed.

So, at the end of June 2011 people had letters clearly stating that they would not be employed. It cannot therefore be that people were not informed. However, people may have thought that if they continued to come to work they may receive letters of employment.

Question: DG, how many contract workers did you have and how many had a chance to apply?

Answer (Director-General): Adverts for applications were run throughout the country. Home Affairs positions were available to all people throughout the country. However, because of the criteria which we said were used when we upgraded these posts, we realised there were certain skills required by our officials which was necessary to rendering quality services. I'm sure colleagues will remember the incident where a 70 year old lady in Limpopo was told to bring her parents when she went to apply for an identity document (ID). Our officials, because of lack of problem solving skills, simply read the book and applied this.

Therefore for us to really turn around the Department, posts had to be upgraded. To get the required skills we realised we would have to pay for them. This is why job profiles were upgraded from level 3 to level 6 so that we could attract people with the relevant skills.

We know that of the 143 740 applications, we received many from graduates with skills although they were not employed. Of the 558 advertised posts were have therefore been able to tap into this pool of unemployed graduates to upgrade the skills level of the Department. All posts have been filled, are filled with people who are graduates or diplomats. We know have to ask if we can go a step further towards becoming professional and efficient so we can indeed delivery quality services.

We must ensure our front line office staff are the cream of the Department so we are able to resolve the challenges of clients. You must remember that there are supervisors in back offices who can assist. There is no supervisor in front offices.

Therefore not only 104 people had the chance to apply. All people could apply but 104 were successful.

We had 419 posts in civic services but I know that the employment of contract workers this is not a situation that is unique to the Department of Home Affairs. Contract workers will now be employed to run Census 2011. We also had the Zimbabwean Documentation Project (ZDP) with which you are familiar and we had to employ some contract workers to ensure we could deliver in terms of our objectives on this project. We did not compromise other service delivery units by absorbing staff from other units for the ZDP. At the same time, we no longer need as many contract staff as we initially required because we are now adjudicating the applications. Contract workers attached to this project will therefore be released as we conclude the project.

We are however very aware of the levels of unemployment in the country. To advertise 558 posts and receive 143 740 applications is indicative of the depth of the challenge faced by the country.

Question: DG, this letter that was sent to various officials in March - who signed this letter - you also refer to a letter sent in June - please clarify how many letters were sent?

Answer (Director General): One letter. The Department of Home Affairs is everywhere so we said that Chief Directors and managers of the offices would be responsible to signing the letters. If you look at the one I have, it has been signed by the manager who is responsible for those contract workers. In the provincial offices, the heads of those offices would sign those letters.

Question: DG, to follow up, did the letter specify that the contract would come to an end on 30 June 2011. Have contract workers coming to work on 1, 2 and 4 July and were they allowed to perform their duties?

Answer (Director-General): If indeed contract workers have been working after the 30 June 2011, this would be non-compliance. We would have to go to that manager and ask why people were allowed to go to work although they did not have a valid contract? The letter is clear in that it communicates that the contract ends on 30 June 2011. If there is a manager in Home Affairs that did not comply, and I am not certain as to the basis on which contract workers would have worked after 30 June? We will have to investigate by discussing with the relevant manager.

Question: DG, can you please give us an update on the 70 year old lady in Limpopo - has she received her ID?

Answer (DDG Vusi Mkhize): We did dispatch the provincial office to deal with the matter to ensure the lady received her ID.

Issued by: Department of Home Affairs, July 5 2011

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter