Residents from Alberton and surrounding areas have raised concerns about service delivery at the Alberton Home Affairs office, citing recurring system outages and difficulties accessing services.

The complaints prompted the Alberton Record to approach the Gauteng Department of Home Affairs for comment.

Residents alleged that the office is frequently offline, resulting in wasted trips, transport costs and lost time as they are often unable to access services when they arrive.

According to the Gauteng Department of Home Affairs, the Alberton office has been offline for 21 hours and 30 minutes since April 1.

Records provided by the department show the office was offline for three hours on April 1, four hours on April 7, one hour and 30 minutes on May 28, eight hours on May 29, two hours and 15 minutes on June 1 and two hours and 45 minutes on June 9.

The department noted that a mobile unit was deployed to assist clients during the extended outage on May 29.

“The system challenge is not unique to the Alberton Office; it is a national challenge wherein the Department is progressively upgrading its systems to meet public demands,” said Mamokubung Moroke, Provincial Manager for the Department of Home Affairs.

Moroke explained that Home Affairs applications are processed digitally and cannot be completed while systems are offline.

“The public is constantly kept informed about the system challenges and the office manager escalates offline issues to the District Manager, District IT official and the Provincial Office for faster resolution,” she said.

Service delivery complaints surfaced alongside allegations by resident Alfred Sibanda, who claims he has been trying to obtain his replacement smart ID card since 2024.

According to Sibanda, he applied for a replacement smart ID card and passport at the Randburg Home Affairs office after his documents were stolen and elected to collect them in Alberton.

Sibanda alleges that when he arrived at the Alberton office, an official asked why he was collecting his documents there, even though he had applied in Randburg. He claims that after responding that, as a South African citizen, he had the right to collect his documents at any Home Affairs office, he was referred to the immigration section.

He further alleges that he was questioned about his ancestry and educational background and was instructed to provide school records from Zimbabwe after disclosing that he had attended school there.

Sibanda claims he was later told to pay R5 000 to secure the release of his documents and that an official subsequently asked for a “cold drink”, which he understood to mean R5 000. He alleges that despite repeated attempts to resolve the matter, he has still not received his smart ID card.

Responding to these allegations, the Gauteng Department of Home Affairs confirmed that it is aware of Sibanda’s case but disputed aspects of his account.

According to the department, Sibanda’s ID and passport were confiscated by an immigration official who suspected the documents had been fraudulently obtained.

“This action is within the mandate of immigration officials, whilst an active investigation is ongoing into the matter,” said Moroke.

The department further stated that officials had requested supporting documents from Sibanda on several occasions to verify his South African citizenship.

“On several occasions, Mr Sibanda has been requested by the immigration official to provide supporting documents to prove his SA citizenship, which he failed to do, hence the delay in finalising the investigation,” Moroke said.

The department said it was unaware of any allegations of bribery or corruption relating to the matter.

“The office is not aware of any allegations of bribery and corruption in this matter,” Moroke said.

According to the department, Sibanda is welcome to lodge a formal complaint with the acting office manager, Golden Malatji, if he wishes to pursue the allegations against the immigration official.

The department also highlighted various channels available to members of the public to report alleged corruption, including office managers, internal counter-corruption structures, labour relations channels, the National Anti-Corruption platform and the offices of the Director-General and Minister of Home Affairs.

The Alberton Record has invited Sibanda to respond to the department’s version of events.

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