Home Affairs is hiring – launches new platform

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has announced the launch of an eRecruitment platform, a move that it said is key to its plans for a “digital transformation” of the department.

The DHA said that “in keeping with our commitment to digitally transform and automate all business processes and service offerings, as well as to recruit the best available talent in the digital age, the DHA is delighted to launch our first-ever eRecruitment portal.”

The department said this platform will allow prospective job applicants to view and apply for all departmental vacancies online without the hassle of paperwork for applicants or the department.

“Online recruitment has long been a standard practice in the private sector, and it is high time that government catches up,” said Home Affairs Minister, Dr Leon Schreiber.

“Since day one, I have said that digital transformation is the apex priority for Home Affairs [and] the launch of our very own eRecruitment platform takes us closer towards achieving that goal,” he added.

Broadly, the DHA envisions an ambitious new future, where no one has to visit a Home Affairs office in person again to access routine services like ID and passport applications and delivery.

The vision directs that over the next five years, all of the department’s services must become fully automated, digitised, and offered online so that clients can access them from the comfort of their own homes.

“Make no mistake about it: the successful implementation of this vision has the potential to revolutionise government as we know it in South Africa,” said the minister recently.

Regarding the eRecruitment, Schreiber said that “this platform will enable us to remove paper documentation from the application process.”

“eRecruitment provides a window into what we want the future to look like under our five-year vision to deliver a digital-first organisation [and] indeed, for prospective job applicants, the eRecruitment platform has delivered Home Affairs @ Home,” added the minister.

Digital transformation battles

Whilst Home Affairs has a plan of complete digital transformation, its ministers have been sparring with the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) over the years, blaming the agency for hindering progress across government and dragging on its ambitions to become a modern, digital department.

SITA was established in 1999 “to consolidate and coordinate the State’s information technology resources in order to achieve cost savings through scale, increase delivery capabilities and enhance interoperability.”

As per the SITA Act, its mandate is to improve service delivery to South African residents and citizens by providing information technology, information systems, and related services.

It also stipulates that this must be done in a maintained system information security environment for government departments and public bodies.

However, recently Schreiber said in an address to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) that “SITA is an artificial construct that stands squarely in the way of technological progress, not only at Home Affairs, but across government.”

“SITA currently exercises a monopoly over key aspects of IT services in the public sector [but] the model of imposing a state monopoly over digital technologies is simply not fit-for-purpose in the digital age,” said Schreiber.

“Even as we move with urgency to reform technological aspects under our control, our efforts will fall short for as long as we cannot maintain, procure and properly manage our own IT infrastructure,” he added.

This is not the first time the Home Affairs and SITA have butted heads.

In June 2021, former Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi told the NCOP that Home Affairs wanted permission from National Treasury to ditch SITA and use a private IT provider.

Motsoaledi said that the IT services provided by SITA were the “original sin” of Home Affairs and argued that although other government departments may be somewhat affected by problems at SITA, it has a crippling impact on Home Affairs

This drew sharp criticism from then-SITA executive caretaker Luvuyo Keyise.

Keyise said Home Affairs’ problems are not SITA’s fault, but due to the department’s own ineptitude and unwillingness to pay for the quality of service it actually needs.

“They buy a bronze service, which offers a 16 business hours turnaround time on issues,” explained Keyise.

SITA advised that the DHA consider upgrading to a platinum-tier service, which would provide all the necessary redundancy and a far stricter service level agreement.

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