THE Department of Home Affairs will extend its working hours to assist residents with certain services prior to the municipal elections on August 3.
These services include the collection of green barcoded ID books and Smart ID Cards, as well as issuing Temporary Identity Certificates (TICs).
The department will ensure that home affairs offices, across the country, are open on these days:
· Saturday, 30 July from 8.30am to 5pm
· Monday, 1 August from 8.30am to 6pm
· Tuesday, 2 August from 8.30am to 6pm
· Wednesday, 3 August from 7am to 7pm
Already arrangements have been made with the IEC for home affairs officials who will be deployed in the provinces on election day to cast special votes on August 1.
Home Affairs minister, Malusi Gigaba urged citizens who have applied for ID books and Smart ID Cards to collect these documents. More than 282 000 identity documents have not been collected.
“These are kept at home affairs offices for a prescribed time. We will compile and distribute a list of people who must collect their identity documents. The department has been lenient to those who have not collected their IDs for periods exceeding one year as consideration for the elections. After August 3 we will revert back to the policy of destroying ID documents that have been uncollected for over a year,” Gigaba said.
The policy of destroying uncollected documents is implemented to protect against any potential fraudulent activity. Therefore, it will be the responsibility of the applicant to lodge a new application and pay the prescribed amount where necessary.
