South Africa: Home Affairs' Cadres Urged to Put Public First

Source: Allafrica.com, 21/08/2015

Pretoria — Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has urged employees at
the Department of Home Affairs to put the public first and to help
improve the department.


Addressing cadre ambassadors in Pretoria, on Friday, the Minister
urged the ambassadors to work hard at improving the image of the
department.


The department's Cadre Ambassador Programme was introduced to turn
around the organisational culture and management of people as
individuals, leaders, managers and teams. The programme aims to instil
a high performance culture and output based performance within the
department.


"What we want you to recognise, wherever you are is that our clients
come first," he said, adding that in the past, Skhumbuzo Mhlongo
committed suicide after he was refused an ID. The 22-year old took his
life in 2009.


"We must create an organisation where there is a high culture of
working hard; of professionalism; where there is leadership
everywhere; where there is excellence everywhere," said the
Minister.


Speaking to the cadres, the Minister said he believes that the
department needs good, strong, fair, solid leaders everywhere and that
the customer experience of ordinary South Africans at Home Affairs is
of importance.


"Members of the public are my concern," said Minister Gigaba.
The Minister further added that the department does not introduce any
system processes or programme for the convenience of officials but
rather for the benefit of the public.


"They come first. As cadres remember that all the time, our clients
come first wherever you are deployed. The only debt we owe to
Skhumbuzo Mhlongo is to ensure that no other South African goes
through the frustration that he went through which caused him to take
his life. We must remember him," explained the Minister.


Minister Gigaba said that he had received compliments from the public
on how service delivery has changed from bad to good but he also added
that things still need to change at some Home Affairs offices.


Other members of the public, he said, were still experiencing bad
service, adding that this experience needs to change.


Minister Gigaba urged the cadres to bring about change in the
department and to be innovative while also discouraging them from
being lazy.


"I don't want laziness at Home Affairs," he said, adding that the
department must only recruit those who can improve the department and
assure it of excellence.


"We are not only a department that issues IDs and passports, birth and
death certificates among others. We are at a crucial connection
between economic development, security, service delivery and
governance and administration. We are the most critical enabler, we
are the backdrop of government service," said the Minister.


The Minister also spoke out against corruption, adding that since
April 2015 up until now, over 30 people had been arrested in
connection with corruption at the department.