New home affairs Director General Barry Gilder signed his contract with Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi on Tuesday.
”I had my first face-to-face meeting with the minister today,” he said.
”It was a very good, amicable meeting.”
Gilder said both he and Buthelezi had expressed the desire for close co-operation.
”I recognise the authority of the minister.”
Buthelezi was the political head of the department, he said.
”I respect that. It is a given, something I cannot challenge. I’ll take directions and policy guidelines from the minister.”
Gilder would not comment on the relationship between his predecessor, Billy Masetlha, and Buthelezi.
Masetlha’s contract remained unsigned from his appointment in late 1999 until he left the post 11 months ago to become presidential security adviser.
In 2001, Buthelezi submitted a 10-page document to the National Assembly’s home affairs committee with the title ”Some of the problems I have experienced with my DG [director general],” in which he listed 64 examples of Masetlha’s alleged wrongdoing.
Cabinet announced Gilder’s appointment earlier this month. He said one of his strategic priorities would be to drive the new immigration dispensation.
The new Immigration Act and its regulations have been the subject of more than one court challenge.
Last week the Constitutional Court reserved judgment on the issue of whether Buthelezi would be granted leave to appeal a decision by the Cape High Court on the constitutionality of new Immigration Act regulations.
And last month the Pretoria High Court declared two sections of the legislation unconstitutional and invalid.
Another big challenge for Gilder would be to secure more resources and better infrastructure for his department.
”The department… is badly understaffed in terms of the services it has to deliver,” the director general said.
Some of its offices in outlying areas did not even have the basic necessities.
There had been no major change in the department’s capacity since 1994, although the number of visitors to South Africa had increased dramatically and many more citizens now had access to normal citizen’s rights, he said.
”The work of the department has multiplied manifold.”
Gilder said he understood there were many demands on the fiscus, but an adequately resourced home affairs department was of great importance for the transformation of the country.
He believed his intelligence background would help him deal with criminals targeting the department, which was very susceptible to corruption due to the nature of its functions. Service delivery was a major priority.
”I will be harnessing information technology to ensure efficiency.” Gilder said.
”Modern technology gives us the opportunity to improve service delivery.”
Other challenges included ensuring people who were entitled to vote got the necessary documentation to do so in next year’s elections, as well as the introduction of the Home Affairs National Identification System [Hanis].
”I’m quite excited about Hanis.”
Gilder said he entered his new job with ”a mixture of excitement and anxiety”.
The excitement was about the challenges he faced and the anxiety about the huge workload. – Sapa