The EFF barricades home affairs over smart cards

BURGERSFORT – The Praktiseer Home Affairs offices, the only ones in the Fetakgomo Greater Tubatse Municipality (FGTM), were closed last Thursday by EFF members. They cited poor service delivery by the department.

EFF councillors claimed that the department chased away ID applicants indicating that they don’t have the Live Capture system for the processing of smart ID cards and new passports.

“The department is taking us back to apartheid. We have incidents whereby the management of the Praktiseer Home Affairs told community members to travel to Jane Furse or Lydenburg towns to get ID cards. They also don’t issue the green bar-coded

ID booklet any more,” said Abigail

Mogofe.

When the paper visited the offices, there were several applicants who were instructed to either go to Lydenburg or Jane Furse.

Matshidiso Malatji travelled more than 50 kilometres from Ga-Kgwete Village to Praktiseer hoping to get an ID which she needed for her new job as a cashier.

“I lost my ID some month ago, and wanted to get a new one, I was told to travel to Jane Furse. I can’t afford to travel such a distance as I am broke,” she said.

“I was not even given a temporary ID. I feel like a foreigner in my own country.”

Steelburger/Lydenburg News investigated and discovered that the Praktiseer office only issued birth certificates.

In a meeting between the EFF members and the office manager at Praktiseer, Lesiba Mashiangoako, the manager admitted that they have a huge challenge working without the smart card machines.

“We had applied for the machine previously, but the department said our offices were too small. We are doing our utmost to bring services to the local people.”

Mashiangoako said there is a bus that ferries people from Tubatse to Jane Furse to help in the smart-card applications. He indicated that the bus is arranged by the FGTM.

This publication spoke to several community members who confirmed that they had registered to be taken to Jane Furse for the IDs, but no one had contacted them.

The office manager also said that the reports that they were not issuing the green bar-coded IDs were untrue.

“We still issue them, but we were advised by the then Minister Malusi Gigaba to do away with them as they will be scrapped in the coming years. If someone needs an ID, we provide them with it.”

The EFF said it was concerned about the debacle. They said there were locals that were allegedly robbed and raped in Lydenburg and Jane Furse while they were there to get IDs.

“Our people don’t have money for travelling. We are giving the Praktiseer Home Affairs 14 working days to get the machines, or we will completely shut the offices.”