Watch: Home Affairs officially opens a new office at Cresta
The opening of the Cresta Shopping Centre Home Affairs follows the launch of an office at Menlyn Shopping Centre, in March, offering smart ID card and passport services to clients on the go, as they do their shopping.
The Department of Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi officially opened the new office at Cresta Shopping Centre and promised more new Home Affairs offices in shopping malls across the country.
@caxtonjoburgnorth Cresta Shopping Centre has officially launched the opening of the Department of Home Affairs, a game-changer for the local community and visitors alike. Are you excited about this? Let us know in the comment section. HomeAffairsCrestaShoppingCentre#fypシ゚viral #sama28 RandburgSun#caxtonlocalmedia
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The minister explained that the new office would assist the Randburg office which many people have been complaining about. “The Randburg office was always on the news for the wrong reasons and people believed it inefficient. We then found out that it was oversubscribed, always too many people from around the area who wanted services there and it could not serve them fast enough.
“Now we have opened this one and we now have two offices and this one is bigger and open with modernised facilities and people can come here while doing shopping at the mall and there are no long queues.”
The Cresta Shopping Centre Home Affairs office has nine service points where clients can apply for smart ID cards and passports. It also has four collection points for these two offices. It is located on the first floor of the shopping centre.
The new office was already put to use by residents who were applying for a smart ID card and a passport. Motsoaledi was interacting with some of them.
Resident Sindi Kubayi who was at the new offices for a passport application said, “It’s good that there is a second office here for us that live closer; it’s going to make our life easier because there was a lot of traffic in Randburg now other people will come here. There are no long queues which is nice. I am really happy about it and the service was good and I hope it remains that way.”
Its operating hours are 08:00 to 15:30 from Monday to Friday. On the last Wednesday of the month, the operating hours are 09:00 to 15:30. The office is closed on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.
However, the minister announced that the office will be open for five hours a day on Saturdays from April 6 to May 25 (excluding April 27) for ID collection services and also, the facilitation of new applications and issuance of temporary identity certificates.
They will also be resolving challenges of duplicates, amendments, rectifications and dead-alive cases and assist with the required supporting documents. The Saturday operating hours are from 08:00 to 13:00.
The department also confirmed that mobile offices are also scheduled to return to deliver IDs in the remote areas where they took applications from local offices, working with stakeholders that include councillors. They will communicate the dates, times and venues of those visits.
Mobile offices will be used to support the identified local offices. Residents can book appointments to collect their smart ID cards and green bar-coded ID books. This can be done before visiting offices by using the Branch Appointment Booking System (BABS). Alternatively, clients can simply visit the Home Affairs offices without making a booking.
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