Parliament, Wednesday 19 September 2018 – A multidisciplinary delegation of members of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) and the Gauteng Provincial Legislature visited the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipal Area to assess how migration affects service delivery the metro.
The visit is part of the preliminary visits the delegates are conducting in the Gauteng Province as part of the Taking Parliament to the People programme. It is going on under the theme “Impact of migration – deepening cooperative governance for accelerated service delivery and development.”
Yesterday started off with presentations from the Departments of Home Affairs, Health, Basic Education and Human Settlement and was followed by site visits to the Desmond Tutu Refugee Centre and Kalafong Hospital.
The leader of the delegation Mr George Mthimunye commended the IT infrastructure at the Desmond Tutu Refugee Centre saying it is proving to be making the queue management much smoother than before. The delegates were also impressed with the general improvement in the servicing of people and the security features available.
Mr Mthimunye requested Mr Mandla Madumisa the Chief Director for Refugee Affairs to consider running the centre on a 24hour basis. “Your department is part of the security cluster and you service many people who come in as early as 3am here. Maybe running it on a 24hour basis will reduce the work load as you will work in shifts” said Mr Mthimunye.
In his presentation to the delegation Mr Madumisa said one of the challenges they experience that causes them to have big numbers of asylum seekers is the fact that 70% of asylum seekers prefer the Desmond Tutu Refugee Centre as compared to other centres across the country.
He said they are still in contact with the Treasury to try and move refugee centres closer to the borders for easier access. He also said 47% of asylum seekers are from SADC, 23% from East Africa, 14% Western Africa and East Asia accounts for 13%.
During the visit to the Kalafong Hospital it was established that migration affects the debt collection from the patients as some foreign patients submit wrong addresses or do not have addresses. This in turn affects the revenue of the hospital as patient billing is a way of revenue collection for the hospital.
In her presentation, Dr Keneilwe Letebele- Acting CEO of the hospital said in some cases foreign patients provide them with wrong identity as they sometimes use their relatives’ identity and this becomes a problem in the case of death.
She said 25% of their maternity patients are foreigners and medical in patients account for 30%.
The previsit programme is continuing today and will culminate with a public meeting on Thursday.
ISSUED BY PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE NCOP LEADER OF THE DELEGATION IN TSHWANE METRO.
For media inquiries or interviews with the leader of the delegation contact Masego Dlula 081 715 9398 or email: mdlula@parliament.gov.za
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