Editor – Seriously, something has to be done about the queues at the Department of Home Affairs!
I was standing in the queue on Thursday morning and the line was right around the corner! Surely something must be done to make the Department of Home Affairs bigger or even break the various sections, for example identity documents, passports, birth certificates, etc, into separate buildings.
We have so many fancy government office buildings around town; one must just take a drive to Lyell Street to see them!
The day before (Wednesday), I was at the department, waiting for my turn and all of a sudden the queue stopped moving at 3.30pm. By 4pm, all the workers were gone!
We suckers were still waiting in the queue when we saw the workers driving out. No decency to even tell the people they are closed.
I had to go ask at the gate what was going on and then go back and tell the other people in the queue that everyone had gone early because they were off-line.
The community members waiting to be assisted are so patient and obliging.
They accept that this is how it is and the frustrating thing is that it is unacceptable! So why should we, as a tax-paying and hardworking community, have to deal with this incompetency?
I say put these highly-paid government employees to work and make Home Affairs more streamlined!
Think of “your” community, Mr Minister of Home Affairs – your people who have to stand from as early as 5am in the freezing cold waiting to get a spot in line. And then, when you eventually get inside the building, still to be treated with stoic faces like the workers are doing us a favour.
Not to mention my huge disappointment on finally getting into the building and finding that only two of the six counters had staff working.
When sitting outside and not moving my position for 45 minutes, I actually phoned Ladysmith Home Affairs and asked them what was going on inside the building. The response was that they were very busy that day because the previous day they were off-line.
Imagine my surprise upon finally entering to find that most of the counters were empty. No wonder the queue outside was not moving.
Upon asking the question as to why the place was under-staffed on such a “busy” day, I was told to “Ask the Minister that question”.
To sum it all up, I arrived at the Home Affairs building to take my place in the long queue outside at 6.45am and I walked out at 11.10am.
I had already done my passport application online two days before, so all I needed was to have a photo taken, sign and pay.
This process actually took less than five minutes, yet I spent over four hours at Home Affairs! Something is horribly wrong with this scenario!
Come on, Mr Minister of Home Affairs, wake up!
I will be waiting for the following week’s Gazette to read if Mr Gigaba cares enough to respond in a public newspaper what he intends to do.
If they do not fully understand the situation, I challenge them to come stand here from 6am and see what our community goes through!
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