Department of Home Affairs Director-General Mavuso Msimang offers an account of his role in the department’s turnaround effort.  Msimang drew on his experience in the liberation struggle and in reforming the South African National Parks authority as he collaborated with consultants to overhaul business processes and performance management procedures in the Department of Home Affairs.  He ascribes the quick improvements in service delivery not only to technical reorganization, which, for example, drastically reduced the number of handovers in the ID production process, but also to his frequent contact with staff at all levels of the organization in an effort to recognize good performance.

Case Study:  Reforming Without Hiring or Firing: Identity Document Production in South Africa, 2007-2009

Department of Home Affairs Identity Documents Director Yogie Travern offers an account of the re-engineering of the production process for South African identity documents. Travern describes the changes made to each step of the process, from the receipt of the ID application form at branch offices to the final lamination and shipping of the ID booklet from the central processing unit. The reform effort did three main things: it reorganized and clarified tasks, made performance visible, and taught mid-level managers how to monitor their employees. The year-long turnaround effort reduced the average processing time for an ID booklet from over 130 days to under 40 days. \

Case Study:  Reforming Without Hiring or Firing: Identity Document Production in South Africa, 2007-2009