“In the private sector they have a slogan: ‘The customer is always right.’ In home affairs we have an unwritten slogan that the customer is always wrong.”
This was the observation of the new Director General of the Department of Home Affairs, Barry Gilder, who this week ignored the common practice among senior government managers of hiding problems. At a press briefing on Wednesday he detailed the inefficiency and corruption that is rife in his department.
Elaborating on the incompetence and lackadaisical attitude of home affairs employees, Gilder said: “We tend to interact with our clients on the presumption that they are not entitled to the service they are asking for until they have proved conclusively that they are. Changing this culture is a major challenge.”
Speaking about the corruption that afflicts his department, Gilder differentiated between convenience and syndicated corruption.
“Convenience corruption arises simply because our clients — citizens and foreigners — get a better service out of the department by greasing our officials’ palms than they would otherwise.
“Then, there is no doubt that the department is a prime target of organised crime syndicates and other criminals because we provide them with an essential service — the enabling documents that allow them to carry out their criminal acts inside the country and across our borders.”
Gilder emphasised that corruption in the department was widespread and not limited to a few rotten apples.
He said the government was trying to facilitate cross-border movements in Southern Africa as a way of dealing with the “revolving door” — the phenomenon of illegal migrants repeatedly repatriated and repeatedly returning, almost immediately.
“We are very sensitive to that and therefore looking at scrapping visa requirements in the region to facilitate as much cross-border movement as possible.”
He said on average the department repatriated about 150 000 illegal foreigners a year.
Gilder is planning a thorough shake-up of the department to get it into proper working order in the coming months.