Finance and Economic Opportunities

With regard to the use of e-gates at the Cape Town International Airport:

(a) What work has her Department done to assist at gates at the Cape Town International Airport:

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is responsible for providing immigration officials at airports and ports of entry. Since 2019, DHA has experienced a notable loss of immigration resources, with a 34% reduction in the number of staff and learners at DHA to process international passengers. This has resulted in periodic bottlenecks and increased waiting times of passengers waiting to go through immigration.

• Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) introduced the eGates, which enables a South African passenger self-service process and improves the speed and efficiency of passenger processing, without the need to increase the number of immigration officers. The pilot was launched in 2020.
• The eGates however require at least one immigration officer to oversee several eGates (4 to 6) to facilitate passengers through the gates and monitor the gates.
• The acute shortage of immigration officers required ACSA staff at Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) to be deployed to the immigration points, to assist DHA with passenger facilitation in the immigration area, and to monitor and respond to any eGates matters. 
• To meet the increased demand for the previous peak season across the airport processes, CTIA applied to the Western Cape Government to participate in the Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDAT) learnership programme which assisted with the workplace learnership opportunities at CTIA for students who gained experience in many of the departments including the customer facing services to decrease any delays and improve the overall experience of the customer. This plays a role in destination management which is key for the tourism industry to ensure that first impression of visitors to the Western Cape is not met with delays and long queues. WC DEDAT approved the deployment of forty-two (42) leaners to the CTIA. ACSA and DHA provided training to assist passengers and improve customer services at the eGates. This improved the passenger experience.
• This initiative is also aligned with ACSA’s strategy to create employment opportunities.

(b) what are the challenges associated with the implementation of e-gates and 

• The eGates can only be used by South African passport holders.
• DHA is not capacitated to manage the eGates and ACSA must facilitate this process at immigration. 
•  Most of the challenges are related to IT integration challenges with the interface to the DHA IT systems. This results in erratic process times and read errors at the gates. 

(c)(i) what are the benefits of the current e-gate system and 

• The eGates have reduced queuing time, thereby improving punctuality and improve service levels, especially during peak periods.
• eGates process passengers in less than 20 seconds vs a manual counter process time of 30 to 45 seconds per passenger - half the time per passenger.
• The faster process times reduces total queuing times. The total queuing time reduction for all passengers varies depending on the number of SA Passport holders in the queue who can use the gates.
• ACSA at CTIA installed 6 eGates for every 4 manual immigration counters and also use 1 to 2 immigration officers at the eGates vs 4 officers at the manual counters.
• It assisted in maintaining high passengers’ satisfaction levels (4 out of 5) by reducing queuing time and through offering passengers a choice of self-service.
• The airport maintained a high On Time Departure performance of 89,6% with a total average international arrival and departure end to end process time of 42 min vs the international standard of 55 min.

(ii) how can this system be improved?

 Register non-SA passport holders to utilise the eGates to increase utilisation.

• Change to a facial biometric system as compared to a fingerprint read system which will improve the speed of processing.
• DEDAT has worked with ACSA which will engage the new Border Management Agency to deploy additional immigration officers at CTIA.
• The ACSA IT team is engaging DHA to update and improve the IT eGate interface, to introduce facial biometrics and to extend the system to international passport holders.
• CTIA has submitted an application to DEDAT to start a new learnership program for the 2023/24 financial year, which is being considered.