Angry and frustrated clients at the Department of Home Affairs

A group of people were found angry and frustrated at the Department of Home Affairs after they were told that they cannot be helped as there was no water at the offices.

The people said they were left to write down their names with the only one left official on Thursday, March 12.

They said they have been doing that on many occasions.

“We have been coming to these offices for the past months only to be told that their systems are down. Some of the officials are not very helpful and their attitudes towards us are very bad. We came here early, stand in the queue for a long time waiting for them to open offices and they do as they wish,” said Ms Tryiphina Mhlongo who is from Wilge and has been coming to the offices of the department since January to apply for her child’s ID only to be told several times that their system was down.

Ms Thandi Hlatshwayo says she has been coming to the offices since October last year and had to start afresh after she was told that her ID has been returned to Pretoria.

Another lady shared the same sentiment and said she spends R60 every time she has to come to the offices with her child and only to be told that there is no water.

The group also alleged that a policeman in uniform came after them but was helped without any problems.

“All the officials left the offices and leaving only one official manning the offices alone telling us to write down our names and told to come back the following day as their systems are down. We had enough of these officials,” said the people.

Mr Sello Selakane head of the local office acknowledge the problems faced by their clients but said the water shortage was beyond their control.

He added to say that their policy states that they can only work for five hours when there is a water shortage for safety measures.

He further indicated that they always communicate with their clients, even sometimes they are faced with challenges from some clients.

“We are trying our best to serve our people and now after the president has declared a disaster we need to protect our clients and ourselves. The national office has also issued a media statement about service interruptions at our offices. We apologies to the public for the inconvenience and appeal for patience,” said Selakane

The statement states that home affairs have identified a glitch in the technology it uses to process applications for smart cards and passports.

This has led to their offices experiencing interruptions over the past two weeks in the delivery of the two services.

There are 194 of the 412 offices nationwide which uses technology to take and issue applications for smart ID cards and passports.

The interruptions are such that offices operate intermittently.

The service interruptions have seen the Department of Home Affairs processing as low as 6 000 applications a day compared to the daily capacity of 20 000.

The department was able to process 16 000 applications only on two days in the past two weeks.

A team of IT specialists comprising of the department and service providers are hard at work trying to restore the capability of the system.

The department apologizes and appeal for patience while the system is being stabilised as a matter of urgency.

For enquires contact Siya Qoza at 082 898 1657 spokesperson of the Minister of Home Affairs.