Politics.za

Auditor-General Shauket Fakie is due to leave the post later this year and who can blame him. The Auditor-General is possibly one of the most depressing jobs in government as you dutifully report on financial management troubles and advise on ways to correct them only to have government ignore you completely.

In the past few weeks the Auditor-General’s office has released report after report slating the financial mismanagement at the departments of Home Affairs, Justice and Housing as well as local governments. Doing all that detective work and then watching while it continues unabated must depress even the most optimistic of people. Let’s hope that the candidates being interviewed – Deputy Auditor-General Terence Nombembe, the auditor-general’s corporate executive officer, Diatile Zondo, and the chief executive officer of the Independent Regulators Board of Auditors, Kariem Hoosain – have got the required mindset (or a recurring prescription for anti-depressants).

Although considering the exemplary work the AG’s office has been doing lately and the challenges that still remain you would expect better then a 5% increase in budget?

The Department of Homa Affairs has long been a source of national embarassment. From having our passports downgraded to near junk status to people resorting to taking hostages to get their ID books to the Minister of Home Affairs having to ask the Finance Department to investigate the shenanigans in her own departments accounting, Home Affairs has been possibly the worst performing government department.

However now it seems Home Affairs might embarass the South African government on a much more international stage. It seems that the deportation of Khalid Rashid, who was deported on the 6th November 2005 to unnamed Pakistani authorities, looks like it may be illegal. Zehir Omar, who is the advocate leading the search for what happened to Rashid, has indicated that he will be bringing the case to the International Criminal Court.

This could turn out to be very embarassing for Mbeki for two reasons. Firstly abducting people and shipping them overseas in the dead of night is not something you would expect from one of the oft described ‘most liberal democracies on the planet’. Secondly the South African government has not exactly been a supporter of the US led “Global War on Terror” but again their actions in this case seem to indicate they’re more than happy to oblige.

Just over a week ago news came out that the UK will no longer be accpeting travellers with temporary SA passports. Now it seems that the Department of Home Affairs has run out of normal passport blanks and can only process a fraction of passport applications and even then only in emergency cases. Add Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to the potential list of targets in the next cabinet reshuffle.

This just popped into my mailbox.

Please note that South African Temporary passports issued after 19 April 2006 are no longer acceptable for entry into the United Kingdom.

Confirmed by the British High Commission.

Considering the number of South Africans who travel to the UK every day this is a bit of an alarming announcement especially as no reason was given for the revoking of travel rights using temporary passports. I suspect the growing incidence of South African passports being used fraudulently (either counterfeited or attained via illegal means) might be a factor.