Department of Home Affairs has cleared permitting backlog

30 Mar 2011

The Department of Home Affairs, in November 2010, in line with the mandate from Minister Dlamini Zuma, undertook a process to completely transform and stabilise the issuance of permits to foreign nationals, which included the process to document Zimbabwean nationals. Measures were taken to clear the backlog that had accumulated over the past years in the 43 regional offices across the country.

The Department of Home Affairs can today Wednesday, 30 March 2011 announce that measures to clear backlogs relating to permit applications have been successful. This is in line with the department's commitment to ensuring these backlogs were resolved by the end of current financial year, Thursday, 31 March 2011.

Applications received up until the end of January 2011 have therefore been adjudicated and permits have been dispatched to the various regional offices. Applications made in February and March this year are currently being processed, the outcomes of which will be communicated to applicants in due course.

As part of this process, the adjudication of permits was centralised and is now done at a central hub in Pretoria. It was necessary to centralise the adjudication of permits so that the Department could assume full control of the process while increasing its efficiency, effectiveness and accountability.The possibility for bribery and corruption in the process has therefore been significantly reduced.

This comes within the context of the department's commitment to ensuring that foreign nationals who add value to South Africa are able to receive the relevant permits expeditiously while those undesirable elements who want to exploit our country and its people are prevented from doing so.

Centralisation of adjudications and the eradication of the backlog

After consolidating all applications from the regional offices, the backlog of permits stood at approximately 53 000. This included the backlog that had accumulated prior to November 2010 as well as new applications received up to the end of January 2011.

Today we are pleased to announce that this backlog has been resolved - all applications for permanent and temporary residence in South Africa have been adjudicated and permits dispatched to offices of application.

Permanent residence permits are issued to foreign nationals who have met the requirements to reside permanently in South Africa, while temporary residence permits are issued to foreign nationals who intend to reside in the country for a maximum period of five years. More information including the categories and requirements can be accessed on http:www.dha.gov.za.

With the establishment of a centralised adjudication hub based at Head Office, the following measures were implemented to resolve the backlog:

• The creation of a Backlog Adjudication Hub which deals with the adjudication of backlog files.
• The creation of a day-to-day Adjudication Hub for the adjudication of daily/current new applications.
• The creation of a Despatch and Postal Receipts Hub for the despatch and receipt of applications from and to regional offices which included a technological site for capturing of applications on the movement control system and the track and trace system.
• A 48-hour Hub for the finalisation of urgent applications especially the renewal or extension of permits.This has been converted to a second line support for the resolution of queries or enquiries referred to the customer service centre (call centre) which has improved communication with the clients and enabled officials to concentrate on adjudication of applications.This has also been supported by the uploading of information regarding permitting requirements on the Department's website.
• The enhancement of the Large Account Unit which is dedicated to processing applications of large corporate institutions.This unit currently services 72 corporate institutions.

The centralisation of adjudications has been supported by additional human resources and information technology (IT) capacity.The use of effective and efficient project and operations management methods also contributed positively to the resolution of the backlog.

In addition, as part of the governance model the department appointed, in the 20 offices with the highest volumes of applications, two existing staff members to act as Permit Quality Inspectors while in other offices, one official was appointed.These officers served as nodal points for all enquiries relating to permits including compliance and adherence to quality standards, in addition to reporting to the central hub at Head office on a daily basis.

Following the centralisation of permitting, the following is a breakdown of the permits adjudicated:

Let me explain the last category, these are applications that require review including further consultation with the client.

Although all permits for applications up the end of January 2011 have been dispatched to the respective offices, applicants must allow a grace period of 14 working days (20 April 2011) from the end of March before they lodge enquiries with the contact centre. This includes time for the courier service and other administrative functions to be concluded.

Applicants will be notified through an sms generated through Track and Trace informing them of the outcome of their application. Those in the category of special cases will be contacted by an official from the Customer Service Centre (call centre).

Only applicants who have not received communication from the department as indicated above, in the next 14 days, should contact the Department's Customer Service Centre on 0800 601190. We should however emphasise that applications for documents from Zimbabwean nationals are still being finalised and therefore not included amongst those in the backlog that has now been cleared.

Documentation of Zimbabwean nationals in South Africa

Meanwhile the Department, on 31 December 2010 brought to a close the process of receiving applications from undocumented Zimbabwean nationals who were applying to have their stay in the country regularised. The Department has, in consultation with the Zimbabwean government agreed to finalise this process by 31 July 2011.

We have to date finalised the sorting of documents according to the following classifications:

We are also pleased to report that the department has, to date crossed a major milestone in our adjudication framework by finalising one hundred and nineteen thousand and nine (119 009) applications from Zimbabwean nationals. A further one hundred and fifty-six thousand seven hundred and fifty three (156 753) applications remain to be adjudicated for which the Department requires fifty three (53) working days to complete the adjudication at the rate of three thousand (3 000) adjudications per day.

A system of text messaging will be implemented from 4 April 2011 to the following applicants:

• applicants who need to take fingerprints at the office of applications
• applicants still requiring passports from the Zimbabwean Consulate; and
• applicants who need to submit supporting documents for each of the three types of permits (business, study and work).

We are currently in the process of validating and finally confirming amnesty applications which amount to 6 243.

We therefore take this opportunity to notify Zimbabwean nationals that since their applications fall within a special project and are therefore not included in the above, they should allow the department to finalise their applications by the end of July 2011 as agreed with the Zimbabwean government.We also appeal to nationals to respond timeously to sms requests to provide further information to enable the department to finalise their applications.

Issued by the Department of Home Affairs, March 30 2011

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