Home Affairs digital reform to include birth registrations at public hospitals

Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber says digital transformation will help with the registrations of newborns in South African public hospitals.

Speaking during the Peace and Security Cluster question-and-answer session in parliament on Wednesday, Schreiber said his department is working on decentralising Home Affairs services and making them more accessible.

“We are working on digital transformation in that space, so that you’re not required to have officials all over the country; you can let technology do the work for you in a secure manner,” he said.

The minister was responding to Economic Freedom Fighters member of parliament (MP) Veronica Mente-Nkuna’s question about Home Affairs services only being available at selected hospitals.

“Babies are born in hospitals, and only tertiary hospitals have got Home Affairs officials in them. Why are other hospitals where the service of giving birth is available?” Mente-Nkuna asked.

ALSO READ: EFF calls for treason charges against corrupt Home Affairs officials

“Why don’t you have officials of Home Affairs stationed in those hospitals so that the babies are recorded and registered right there, so that there is no up and down?”

Long queues

Mente-Nkuna also raised concerns about vulnerable people being turned away from Home Affairs branches and asked to return another day due to long queues.

She said pregnant women, mothers with babies, people living with disabilities and the elderly – who are usually grant recipients from rural areas – often use their last money to travel from remote locations, only to be turned away.

Schreiber said the Home Affairs model the government of national unity (GNU) inherited after the May 2024 election was largely based on the idea of brick-and-mortar offices.

He said while there are currently 342 offices and 220 mobile units across the country, these are not enough to service the 62 million-strong population.

ALSO READ: Schreiber on Afrikaner farmers’ citizenship as Ramaphosa downplays African Americans refugee offer

Bringing Home Affairs ‘closer to home’

“This is why we are now building a fundamentally new model through our vision to deliver Home Affairs at home. To bring Home Affairs much closer to home, including in rural areas, we are working to expand a successful pilot project with bank branches from the current 30 bank branches to over 1 000,” the minister said.

“Once this digital transformation work is complete, I can indeed give the assurance that Home Affairs services will become available 24/7, accessible in bank branches but also online from anywhere in the country.”

Cutting the queues

Schreiber said moving people out of Home Affairs queues and into the bank branches or online will free up the department and allow them to focus on people who need their help and support the most.

This includes undocumented South African children.

“We need a dedicated campaign to resolve that, to bring dignity to these people. And we can only do that once we free up capacity, and we can do that through partnership and technology.”

NOW READ: Big ID change for SA from Monday