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HomE affairs casE study

DM: Is the drive to digitise the
department not a possible solution
to capacity constraints, reducing
the number of people from labour-
intensive work that may now be done
by computers?

TM: In the case of the department, the
expected reduction of staff is likely
to be at the back office and not at
the front office, which interacts with
citizens. The nature of the work of the
department is such that we still need
that human touch. It is the warm bodies
that take fingerprints for verification
and for security purposes. You can’t
have people administering their own
finger printing. Even the eHome Affairs
applications cannot be fully completed
from home; one has to eventually
physically present oneself at the actual
service point.
DM: Would it be correct to say that
the use of technology accounts for the
remarkable performance of the DHA
over the past two decades or so?

TM: The modernisation of the
department cannot take place in a
vacuum of institutional transformation.
In fact, the important milestones of the
2006 turnaround strategy included
changing the organisational culture
and a clearly mapped out business
process, which are critical aspects of
any technological intervention. In a
nutshell, we also had to look at these
aspects before we could even think
about digitising. Because when the
input is trusted, you also have an output
that is secure.

DM: What accounts for the
department’s progress in leveraging
technology to deliver on its mandate?

TM: In general, a key factor to the
success of the department’s ongoing
turnaround strategy has to do with the
consistency of leadership, and thus
strategies. Another plus is the senior
management’s buy-in to implementing
the modernisation drive. Their
participation and leadership within the
various teams makes implementing
decisions across the department easier.
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Volume 11 No. 3 of 2018 | SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW 27