Assessing the extent to which vetting can promote good governance in the Department of Home Affairs

Abstract

This is a study of the vetting process as carried out in South African state departments. The objective of the study is to set out the strengths and weaknesses of the vetting process and to determine the implications the process has on accountability and good governance. The research site is the Department of Home-Affairs’ (DHA) Immigration Services at OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA). This site is chosen in light of the Ministerial instruction given in 2017, to vet all officials at the airport as a measure to combat the widespread criminal activity and corruption that has become the focus of much media attention. Vetting forms part of the Minimum Information Security Standards (MISS) and the Minimum Ant-Corruption Capacity (MACC) policy. Vetting is defined as a systematic process of investigation to determine security competence (Mdluli, 2011), wherein security competence is the ability of an official to work responsibly and not misuse state information (Molapo, 2017). This study was done qualitatively using semi-structured interviews as the instrument for data collection. The results of the study show that vetting falls short in its attempt to promote good governance and accountability. The DHA and other state departments need to do much more to improve the execution and enforcement of the vetting process.