Deputy Minister Njabulo Nzuza: Home Affairs Dept Budget Vote 2025/26

Honourable House Chairperson
Minister of Home Affairs, Honourable Dr Leon Schreiber
Members of the Executive
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, Honourable Mosa Chabane
Honourable Members of the Portfolio Committee
Director-General of Home Affairs, Mr Tommy Makhode
Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission, Mr Mosotho Moepya
CEO of Government Printing Works, Ms Alinah Fosi
Commissioner of the Border Management Authority, Dr Mike Masiapato
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, we table a budget that holds the transformative potential to modernise the Department of Home Affairs into a fully-fledged digital platform — one that enables seamless access to services and allows the Department to operate from anywhere in the world.

This budget marks a crucial step toward ensuring that the Department functions at its full capacity, while building on the foundation for a Home Affairs that is efficient, agile, and future-focused.

Birth registration is the foundation of our population register. It is the first, yet critical step towards an infant’s journey of life.

Without birth registration, individuals would become invisible, and non-existent. With no identity and no passport, our children would literally be invisible. That is why birth registration is the first thing we must get right for our country to grow stronger. This budget allows us to do that by ensuring that 348 front offices register births. We also do so through 391 health facilities.

The 2024/25 financial year saw us taking services to 48 more health facilities, expanding our capabilities in promoting Early Birth Registration.

Last year, we registered 868 476 births, of these 143 301 were Late Registrations of Birth (LRB). We are pushing back against Late Registration of Birth and fighting the scandal of invisibility. We just returned from Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, and we are soon going to an orphanage here in the Western Cape to push back late registrations.

It is our firm belief that the circumstances under which children are born must not determine their prospects in life and their registration status. We have made investments in building an e-birth registration platform which will make birth registration easier and more accessible.

We are also working on easing requirements for birth registration whilst keeping to high security standards by reviewing regulations. We continue to make headway in the implementation of our multi-channel service delivery strategy, blending physical and digital access whilst continuing to grow towards fully digital platforms.

The new purpose-built state-of-the-art Home Affairs Office in Mokopane, Limpopo, has changed the lives of people in the area. They are now experiencing improved service, with dignity and respect. There is progress in the construction of the Taung Home Affairs office. It is anticipated for occupation and full operation in the current financial year.

In the 2024/25 financial year, the Department issued a record of more than 3,5 million Smart ID Cards against a target of 2.5 million, just above 970 000 of these Smart IDs were first time issues. This record for Smart IDs was achieved partly because we added 100 new mobile offices that enabled us to deliver services in communities that are far from our offices.

In the 2024/25 financial year, mobile offices were deployed to 10 149 service areas. Of these, 7 870 visits were to schools, ensuring that leaners do not lose schooling hours, especially Grade 12 leaners. These visits were against a target 5 613 visits.

As part of our multi-channel strategy of taking services directly to the people, mobile offices collected 247 231 Smart ID Card applications, compared to 229 416 in 2023/24. The Live Capture system has enabled citizens to apply for Smart ID Cards and machine-readable Passports in 212 modernised offices.

At the end 24/25 Financial Year, the total number of persons issued with Smart ID Cards was over 25 million since the inception of the modernisation programme. We also kept on track with offering Home Affairs services conveniently at some shopping malls.

The year 2023 saw the opening of the first Home Affairs office at the Menlyn Shopping Centre in Pretoria. We have since expanded to:

We are forging ahead with the self-service Kiosks as part of our digital transformation journey. The AI-powered Kiosk will further expand our digital footprint and alleviate queues. It will provide an alternate digital self-service channel through which citizens can apply for and collect Smart ID Cards and Passports. It will also provide citizens with reprints of birth/death/marriage certificates.

The Digitisation of Records is yet another vital program for our Digital Transformation. It is arguably set to be the largest paper records digitization project in Africa. This project is already converting manual, paper-based files into digital records that are easily accessible at the touch of a button. This will mean that we are able to effect amendments almost instantly, compared to the eight weeks it currently takes. Over 49 million civic records have been digitised since 2023. We intend to digitise a further 25 Million records for the 2024/25 financial year.

House Chairperson, our digital transformation journey will not amount to much if we do not take our officials along. This budget has enabled us to set aside R4 Million towards training and re-skilling efforts for employees. In 2025/26, our training focus is largely on a Digital Literacy Programmes for all staff. It will be rolled out over three consecutive financial years from 2025 to 2028. The curriculum covers:

• Information literacy

• Communication and collaborative tools

• Digital devices and software proficiency

• Cyber security

• Enterprise content management

We will continue fighting the scourge of Gender Based Violence and Femicide (GBV&F) wherever it rears its ugly head. The Department is allocating R896 000 towards raising awareness on GBV&F. An Implementation Plan is in place for promoting gender equality and rights of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities.

House Chairperson, we continue to lend a helping hand to communities seeking to rebuild their lives following natural disasters by way of replacement of enabling documents at no cost to the citizens. This work is very important to restore dignity so that citizens can continue with their lives post disasters.

We will continue to use our mobile fleet to bring services to affected areas. Our prayers and efforts will now be directed to the thousands of disaster-affected citizens in Vygieskraal informal settlement, Belgravia here in the Western Cape.

In conclusion, I would like to pass my appreciation to the Minister, Dr Leon Schreiber, for his leadership. Indeed, working together we can achieve a lot more.

Let me also express my gratitude to the Chairperson and Members of the Portfolio Committee for your continued commitment and support. The oversight role you play fuels us to do more.

I would like to acknowledge the highly dedicated management complement and all hard-working employees at team Home Affairs under the leadership of the Director-General Tommy Makhode. Your continued hard work and dedication is of great value to our citizens.

Lastly House Chairperson, this budget is more than a financial instrument. It is a declaration of intent and our commitment to building a Department of Home Affairs that is modern, efficient and capable of meeting the needs of all South Africans. Let us join hands and work together to ensure that all citizens get access to our services with ease, speed and reliability.

I Thank You.

Enquiries:
Siya Qoza
Cell: 082 898 1657

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