Officials from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) met with the Department of Home Affairs on Tuesday, 27 October, to look at ways to improve service delivery and efficiency through technology.

The Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber and DHA Director-General Mr Tommy Makhode met with Education MEC Jaco Londt and WCED Head Brent Walters to share lessons from the Department’s ongoing digital transformation.

More than 200 officials participated in the engagement, including members of the WCED management structures.

During the engagement, Minister Schreiber and his team outlined how Home Affairs is using technology and innovative partnerships to fundamentally transform service delivery, replacing outdated, paper-based processes with secure digital systems.

“The success of our Home Affairs @ home reforms, including expanding access to over 1 000 service points and processing more than one million Smart ID Card applications through our bank partnership in just seven months, demonstrates what is possible when government embraces digital transformation. We welcome the opportunity to share the lessons from our reforms with the WCED, because the benefits of technology-driven, efficient and dignified public services should extend across government.”

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The WCED says the engagement provided a practical blueprint for how technology can be used to improve efficiency.

WCED Head Brent Walters said, “Today’s engagement was a valuable opportunity to learn from the Department of Home Affairs’ digital transformation journey. The digitalisation of services demonstrates how technology can make government more efficient, accessible and responsive. We look forward to taking these lessons back into our own department and consider how innovation can help us simplify processes, improve our systems and ultimately provide a better service to our schools, teachers, parents and learners.”

MEC Londt said that the success of the Department of Home Affairs is the perfect example of using innovation to serve residents better.

“The transformation underway at Home Affairs demonstrates what can be achieved when government embraces innovation and puts the needs of residents first. The WCED is already doing good work, but there is always room to improve. By learning from the practical experience of Minister Schreiber and his team, we can identify opportunities to reduce administrative burdens on our staff and ultimately deliver better services to our schools, teachers and learners. Our goal is a modern, responsive education department where technology reduces paperwork and allows officials to focus on quality education.”

The two departments say they will continue engagements to identify opportunities for collaboration.