General: Home Affairs White Paper out for comment

With its ‘deep-seated’ structural problems, ‘the Department of Home Affairs’ legacy model is preventing it from delivering on its full mandate, as required in a sovereign, democratic state’. This is according to a draft White Paper gazetted on Friday for comment by 18 February, notes Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. It focuses on ‘repositioning’ the department by replacing the ‘legacy model’ with one ‘strategically managed’ by ‘technically competent, citizen-centred’ professionals ‘actively involved’ in the national security issues within their mandate. To that end, apparently ‘for the first time’, policy framework proposals outline the fundamental elements of a system that more effectively ‘manages’ official identity and status, international migration and asylum seekers and refugees. It ‘reflects the kind of policy environment … generally found in capable states’ – nevertheless noting that, as things now stand, ‘over half’ the department’s officials ‘sit behind counters performing routine tasks and do not have a higher education qualification’.

Drawing from a discussion document released in May 2017 and on which Legalbrief Today reported at the time, the White Paper explores what is described as a ‘future-fit’ departmental model – which would include ‘sustainable funding’ and an ‘enabling legislative environment’. Two new pieces of legislation are envisaged: a Home Affairs Act; and a National Identity System Act, which will require its own policy framework and ‘specify the data that can legally be captured from civic and immigration systems’, adhering ‘strictly’ to the 2013 Protection of Personal Information Act. In this regard, the paper emphasises the importance of ‘a skilled and specialised workforce characterised by their agility and capacity for learning’ and with ready access to the ‘appropriate resources and tools’. This is noting that, ‘in the new economy’, ‘adequate funding for a secure, efficient Department of Home Affairs is unlikely to be questioned’. Within ‘five-to-seven years’ the ‘potential for raising revenue’ will apparently be ‘large’, especially given citizens’ ‘growing dependency’ on the department’s data and services. The somewhat sparse implementation roadmap is based on that premise.

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