Programme Director, Deputy Minister Njabulo Nzuza,
Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi,
Premier of Limpopo, Mr Stan Mathabatha,
Executive Mayor of Waterberg District Municipality, Cllr SM Mataboge,
Mayor of Mogalakwena Local Municipality, Cllr N Taueatsoala,
Distinguished Guests,
People of Mokopane,
Fellow South Africans,

Dumelang. Avuxeni. Ndi Matsheloni. Goeie môre. Livukile. Sanibonani. Good Morning.

It is a great pleasure to be here today with the residents of Mokopane to launch these new trucks, which are going to make a huge difference in the lives of the people of Limpopo.

We are bringing government to the people.

The programme we are launching is called Home Affairs on Wheels, and it is going to change the provision of Home Affairs services for the better across South Africa.

We don’t just want to make it easier. We want to make it faster and we want to make it cheaper.

For many people, especially in the rural areas, travelling to reach government services can take a lot of time and be expensive.

With these mobile offices, you don’t have to spend a lot of money on transport to go into town to apply for services from the Department of Home Affairs.

It has now become easier because Home Affairs is coming to you.

Today we are launching these mobile offices, where you will be able to apply for a smart ID, a passport, a birth certificate, a marriage certificate or a death certificate on site.

A total of one hundred trucks will now go into service, adding to the 20 that we rolled out last year.

We are planning to order at least 100 trucks every year until we reach a total of one thousand.

We have also opened a new Department of Home Affairs office here in Mokopane, which will further help you to access these services.

These mobile offices are fully-equipped and will be fully connected wherever they are situated, even in rural areas.

This new fleet of mobile Home Affairs offices won’t be moving constantly around the provinces. They will be available in a village or town at a particular time so that people can know when to go there.

We are planning to take these mobile offices to schools so that learners who need the services don’t have to take days off school.

The Department of Home Affairs will soon be unveiling a kiosk model that allows you to access services just like withdrawing money at an ATM.

Once this system is up and running you will be able to use this walk-in kiosk to do things like applying for replacement copies of a birth, marriage or death certificate. You will also be able to use the kiosk to apply for a passport or a smart ID card.

Another way we have taken government’s services to you, the people, is by opening Home Affairs offices in hospitals for birth registrations. This has made a big difference in the rate of civil registrations and we hope it will continue to bring down the number of late registrations of births.

Apart from the 412 Home Affairs offices in different parts of the country, the Department has been able to expand the reach of services through partnerships with banks, with shopping malls and with expanded offices like the one we are launching in Mokopane today.

To the people of Mokopane,

I call on each of you to see these new Home Affairs trucks as your own and to treat them as your own.

Take pride in them and help us to care for them.

These trucks are assets meant for the benefit of all people and all communities.

This year marks 30 years since we attained our freedom.

With the advent of democracy, we set out on the path to restore the dignity of all South Africans.

During apartheid, the regime denied black South Africans their dignity by controlling where we lived, worked and travelled.

They used influx control to deny the country’s majority access to work and other opportunities, and forced them to carry a dompas to make them strangers in their own country.

Since 1994 we have progressively built a Department of Home Affairs that is the custodian and protector of the citizens of South Africa and other people who are legally resident here.

By recognising people’s legal identity and by providing them with the necessary documentation, the Department is helping them to lead lives of dignity.

It ensures their right to access public services and social protection.

It allows them to vote, to find work, to open bank accounts and to travel beyond our borders.

The civil registration statistics generated by the Department of Home Affairs guides our decisions, policymaking, planning, monitoring and evaluation.

Since democracy we have taken important steps to ensure that civil registration is made as accessible as possible.

The opening of the expanded Home Affairs office here in Mokopane and the introduction of these mobile offices are a great leap forward.

Allow me to thank all those who have been part of this successful launch and to congratulate the Department of Home Affairs for its efforts.

Let us continue to work together to build South Africa.

Let us ensure that everyone in the country can access the services they need.

Let us leave no-one behind.

I thank you.