Home Affairs does not have its affairs in order
Vellah Marumo, Mogale City Home Affairs office manager, was more than willing to provide clarity on certain matters.
Over the past few months, various residents have contacted the News about issues they have experienced at the Department of Home Affairs, saying they have grown tired of how things are being done.
The concerns raised include the following:
• The department’s computer system often goes offline, which results in wasted trips to the building itself.
• They only let a certain number of residents in at a time. The others have to stand outside the gate and wait. Should it start raining, the gates remain closed.
• After having to wait for several hours, some residents are told to go home.
• Residents have no access to any form of ablution facilities while in the queue.
“We had to go back to Home Affairs three times – on three different days – to even get into the building. We’ve only had bad experiences,” said Louis Mienie.
Upon visiting the department, the News discovered that the system was offline then too. However, all the staff remained at their work stations.
Also Read: Elderly robbed at Home Affairs — Department issues warning
Vellah Marumo, Mogale City Home Affairs office manager was more than willing to provide clarity on certain matters.
According to her, it’s not only Mogale City’s system, but in fact the entire Gauteng’s system that goes offline. This is due to regular cable theft throughout certain parts of the country.
“When we’re off, we’re off. Unfortunately there’s nothing we can do about it, except wait it out,” she said.
According to the Home Affairs Provincial Manager, Albert Matsaung, an assessment will be done to find the cause of the computer problem, whereafter it will be escalated to the Information Technology team for resolution.
“It takes much longer than is normally anticipated; thus the negative impact on service delivery to clients,” he added.
They also practice queue management, giving priority to the elderly, and pregnant women. Furthermore, the amount of space for customers is limited, and only about 100 can be accommodated at any one time.
Vellah went on to say that overcrowding is a real issue – they’d had to call an ambulance to assist a resident who fainted due to the densely packed crowd in the past.
She also told us why they suggest that some people in the queue leave in the early afternoon.
“We are not allowed to work after 4pm, so we plan ahead and calculate the number of clients we can accommodate before we close our doors for the day,” she said.
Even though the office officially closes at 4pm, operation hours for clients are from Monday to Friday, 8am until 3.30pm, Albert said.
“The office is at times unable to serve all the clients due to the high number of people visiting the office. The office will be servicing a limited number of clients with some being advised to return the following day,” he said.
They are also aware of the ablution facility constraints, which are also the result of the high number of people visiting the office. For more information, feel free to contact the Department of Home Affairs on 011 951 5820.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at krugersdorpnews@caxton.co.za or phone us on 011 955 1130.I
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