Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbite by Adrian Roos MP.
The Democratic Alliance is proud to see that Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber is showcasing his rapidly accelerating digital transformation of Home Affairs at a conference in Dubai this week.
In government the DA delivers, improves, transforms – and for this to be showcased on an international platform is a proud moment for the DA, because the digital transformation Schreiber is showcasing is improving lives of South Africans.
Measured against leading international examples, the digital transformation underway at Home Affairs shows that under a DA Minister the Department is overcoming its historical association with queues, system failures and inefficiency – to become a world leader in digital civics and immigration services.
Under Minister Schreiber, Home Affairs has embarked on an ambitious programme to replace outdated, paper-based and manual processes with secure digital systems that remove human discretion, combat fraud and make services dramatically more accessible.
This transformation is already delivering measurable results. More than 450 participating bank branches now provide access to Smart ID services, while the Electronic Travel Authorisation system is using biometrics and machine learning to strengthen immigration security and facilitate legitimate travel. The DA is proud to see this on the world stage.
Under Minister Schreiber the upgraded Online Verification System now processes more than 180,000 identity verifications every day, with an error rate below 1%, while system-offline incidents have declined by 61%.
These reforms demonstrate what is possible when technology is used not simply to digitise old processes, but to fundamentally redesign how Home Affairs works.
This is what the DA gets right in government: improving systems, cutting costs, eliminating corruption, and getting government working for all people.
The DA is proud that reforms being driven by a DA Minister are increasingly positioning South Africa to benchmark itself against the best in the world.
As Minister Schreiber said from Dubai: “Our ambition is clear: to transform Home Affairs from a laggard into a world leader. We are harnessing technology to build secure, accessible and efficient civics and immigration services that deliver dignity for all South Africans.”
In government, the DA delivers.