Home affairs receives thumbs up

An elderly Malalane couple have embraced the good service they had received at the Mbombela home affairs office when they visited to reapply for a new identity document. Colleen Elphick (88) said there are many negative reports of mistreatment of people and bad service at the government’s public service centres, but the civil servants of Mbombela’s home affairs demonstrated the exact opposite by assisting the elderly.

”I took my husband, David (90), to reapply for his identity document after he had lost the old one on March 29. Upon our arrival, the queue was quite long. My husband cannot stand for long due to his age.

We appealed to the official at the door for help. She immediately let us in and ushered us to all the counters that we were supposed to go to. There was no waiting at any of the counters. The offices were clean and uncluttered, with only so many people allowed in at a time.

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There were two officials directing people where to go. ”Everything ran smoothly and we were treated with courtesy, efficiency, and kindness. It can be done if the managers are conscientious and interested in their job,” she said.

The district manager for home affairs in Mbombela, Dorris Chiloane, said positive feedback from clients is encouraging as it encourages them to do even more to ensure that we provide quality services to the public.

“Mbombela office is one of our busiest offices, but we always strive to improve our services so that we can have clients leaving the office with a pleasant experience. There are categories that we prioritise, that do not have to queue. Clients who are pregnant, sick, elderly, disabled, and learners in school uniforms are given exemptions, “she said.

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This is the reason why the elderly couple were given this special treatment, “We always strive to provide quality services to the public and we are open to constructive criticism from clients as it assists us to correct where we are lacking in delivering services of a high standard,” said Chiloane.

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