Minister attending to passport - seeking emaSwati
CHALLENGES:
Some emaSwati raised concerns that despite the challenges they encounter at the ministry, the minister was not showing up to monitor the service provided by the ministry’s officials.
MBABANE – Minister of Home Affairs Princess Lindiwe is making time to interact with members of the public seeking services at the ministry.
This was an assertion by the Ministry’s Communications Officer Mlandvo Dlamini when asked by this publication how many times the minister was taking time from schedule to appreciate the challenges citizens go through when applying for national documents at the ministry.
Notably is that some emaSwati raised concerns that despite the challenges they encounter at the ministry, the minister was not showing up to monitor the service provided by the ministry’s officials.
The minister’s office is less than a minute away from the ground floor, where emaSwati are made to wait for long hours while waiting to have their travel documents and other documents processed.
Some of the citizens interviewed by the Eswatini News said their wish was to meet the Home Affairs minister so that they could share the challenges they were facing.
“It is very important to clarify that the minister of Home Affairs interacts with ordinary emaSwati at the ministry on a daily basis. On a daily basis, she spends good time on the ground floor to speak and understand the needs of the people. She loves and respects citizens of this country. In any case, when going to her office, she passes through the ground floor and that is when she interacts with the people to hear about their concerns,” Dlamini said.
The communications officer also pointed out that it was not everyday that the minister would have time to meet and talk with the people at the ministry, as she had other national duties to attend to. It is worth noting that efforts to get the comment of the Home Affairs minister were made but her cellphone rang unanswered.
This publication wanted to find out if she had visited the other service centres in the coun- try to assess the situation on the ground in light of reported challenges, including the bribery allegations against some of the ministry’s officials.
On the other hand, hardly days after it emerged that the ministry was facing serious shortage of passports, it has been gathered that people have been encountering challenges in having important national documents like birth certificates and IDs processed at the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Pigg’s Peak service centre since November last year.
This was attributed to network challenges that have been making it difficult for emaSwati seeking these documents to get assistance in time.
Some, it has been gathered, have been forced to travel to and from this service centre for days without getting assistance, as they are told about the network challenges. It has been gathered that the service centre is able to access the network through the Eswatini Post Office in the area.
For Pigg’s Peak residents, the repercussions have proven dire as they have encountered challenges securing places for their children in most schools due to the fact that these two documents (ID, birth certificate) are a requirement for registration.
When the Eswatini News paid a visit to this centre recently, over 60 people were found in a queue inside and outside the offices in the hope of getting assistance but to no avail.
Notably, Timphisini Bucopho Nicholas Ndwandwe was among those who were found waiting for assistance from the centre. Interviewed briefly, Ndwandwe admitted that securing the documents has been a great inconvenience as people were being turned on a frequent basis.
“The unfortunate thing is that most of these people want the birth certificates and IDs to register their children in schools. It is very frustrating for these people because some travel long distances but still do not get help,” Ndwandwe said.
Denying
The supervisor at the centre, Nqobile Dlamini, was asked about this issue, but though not denying the network challenges, she referred comments to the ministry’s principal secretary (PS).
“I am not at liberty to discuss issues pertaining to the ministry, please contact the head office in Mbabane,” she stated briefly.
The Home Affairs communications officer acknowledged the network challenges at the Pigg’s Peak service centre, pointing out that, to their knowledge, this was experienced from October to December last year.
This was after this publication put it to him that the network challenges were still affecting Pigg’s Peak people, to an extent that some parents could not secure places for their children in some schools due to the unavailability of these documents.
“The Ministry of Home Affairs acknowledges the network challenges experienced from October to December 2023, which have impacted the processing of birth and death certificates at the Pigg’s Peak service centre. Despite these challenges, we wish to remind parents of the legal requirement, as outlined in the Civil Registration Act of 2023, which stipulates that children must be registered before the age of 60 days. It is essential for parents to adhere to this requirement to ensure that their children have timely access to essential documents, particularly to avoid instances where children may encounter difficulties in registering for school due to the lack of birth certificates,” Dlamini said.
He also admitted that during the aforementioned period (between October and December last year), the ministry’s services were intermittently affected, particularly in the morning hours. He claimed that connectivity was restored before lunch until late.
“Despite these challenges, we made every effort to assist our clients by registering current deaths and births, as well as manually enrolling for identification to ensure that no individual was unduly disadvantaged,” he said.
“Moreover, we took proactive measures to register individuals and collected their contact details. Subsequently, we reached out to them to collect their certificates upon completion. Although this additional step falls outside our standard scope of operations, it was implemented to ensure that our clients received the service they deserved.”
Dlamini reported that since the beginning of January 2024, until today, the network problems have significantly improved, claiming that they can now enroll over 50 clients per day at the Pigg’s Peak service centre only.
“This positive development underscores our dedication to providing efficient and timely services to the nation and we will continue to monitor and address any remaining network chal
“It is very frustrating for these people because some travel long distances but still do not get help,”