Home affairs’ service nothing short of despicable
A toddler simply excremented on the ground.
LYDENBURG – The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) in town is in shambles.
Since the building in which this government service was situated, was declared unsafe a year ago, service has gone from bad to worse.
The roof of the building in Voortrekker Street started to collapse in 2018 and was immediately evacuated. Since then, only a mobile truck has been available to more than 38 000 residents.
For the past year they have been subjected to not only disgraceful service delivery, but have been left exposed to severe weather elements.
Steelburger/Lydenburg News’ journalist went to apply for an unabridged marriage certificate, but after more than four hours, had to leave without any assistance or application.
What was experienced, however, was shocking. Those applying for IDs, passports or any other documents were forced to stand and wait in the sun because of a lack of seating and shade.
The so-called mobile clinic only serviced about two people the entire time and when enquiring about the lack of assistance, the journalist was greeted with a mouth full of food.
For four hours it would seem that the only service that was being rendered was that of collecting already issued documents.
There were no toilet facilities and people urinated against the containers. A toddler simply excremented on the ground.
Staff was rude and refused to be of any assistance, only pointing to the truck and saying one had to wait until you were called. This was not the first time complaints were received about the department.
In May it could not render any services when its router was apparently damaged by lightning. Although the town has not experienced any rainfall since March, the DHA was adamant that lightning struck and damaged the router.
The newspaper sent various queries in an attempt to get any feedback on the matters at hand. Emails were sent to various communications managers within the department on both national and provincial level.
Phone calls went unanswered and at the time of going to press, no response was received.
