Govt to gear up for local elections
Thabo Mokgola
17 February 2005
Preparations for South Africa's next round of local government elections will get under way towards the end of this month, with the Department of Home Affairs re-launching its ID campaign to enable more South Africans to vote.
Addressing the media in Cape Town on Tuesday, Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said the department would improve both the distribution of identity documents and the current standard for issuing IDs from 6-8 weeks to 4-6 weeks.
Completing preparations for the election, and voter participation in the election, were the most pressing issues for 2005, she said. Local government polls are scheduled to be held later this year or early next year.
Home Affairs is also in the process of introducing the Home Affairs National Identity System (Hanis), which will enable it to create and maintain an integrated biometric database of all people, citizens as well as visitors, that it deals with.
"As part of the department's turnaround strategy, it is planned to computerise all application processes, enabling a quick, reliable and secure system of identification and delivery of services", Fraser-Moleketi said.
The contract to convert over 30 million paper-based fingerprint records into Hanis has been awarded, and work has begun, the minister said. It is due to be completed by next year.
On immigration, the minister said the government had taken note of a number of views expressed since the publication of the country's new draft immigration regulations.
"We would like to encourage an open debate and public discourse as we strive to define and shape the new immigration regime in South Africa", Fraser-Moleketi said.
Home Affairs will, in the next few weeks, launch SA's National Immigration Branch, unveiling professionally branded uniforms, vehicles, training programmes for immigration officials, and refugee smart cards.
Source: BuaNews
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