Poor service raises people’s hackles

The Department of Home Affairs has left many South Africans fed-up and frustrated over their lack of service and the excuses offered for this, including that its systems are offline for much of the day.

Mariah Serobe, a resident of Welkom in Matjhabeng Local Municipality, said their Home Affairs office was more often than not offline and opened for only two hours a day.

“Our Home Affairs office is a problem. I am sure it only opens for two hours and the rest of the day is closed. When you ask why it’s closed, it’s either they are offline or there is no water.”

She said when residents knew they had to visit Home Affairs, they had to make peace with the fact that they were going to spend the day there.

Dieketseng Mokoena from Fezile Dabi District Municipality echoed Serobe’s sentiments, saying no-one was likely to get to work when they had to visit a Home Affairs office.

Mokoena said it was worse for her as she had to travel from Parys to Sasolburg,

her closest Home Affairs office, and on arrival had to join long queues.

She said this was only part of the problem because during the course of the day, people in the queue would be told the system was offline and told to return the following day.

“Imagine the transport money we spend on just going to the offices, then to be told you must go and come back the following day.

“These people don’t think of us. I mean, what was the reason to close down the offices in Parys? Now all of us come here.”

Mokoena said there were also people coming to Sasolburg from Vredefort and other towns to sort out their identity documents, which meant the office was handling people from numerous towns.

The poor service and long delays are not unique to the Free State.

Amanda Schols, a resident of Caledon in the Western Cape, said the Home Affairs office in her town was “forever” offline and the staff didn’t seem to know when it would be on or off.

If it was not load shedding, it was the network that was down.

Trying to get something done at Home Affairs could take the whole day.

“Imagine driving from Hermanus to Caledon only to find that the network is off, and when you ask these people when it will be back up, they tell you they don’t know.”

Schols said that on one occasion she asked the security guard if the Home Affairs office had a generator, and he had told her they had, but it was not working.

“Imagine such an explanation!” Schols said.

The department’s efforts to launch an appointment booking system at select offices across the country appears to have failed, with many describing the system as “chaotic”.

This has led to people complaining about poor service delivery at Home Affairs offices in the Western Cape.

Many people have also complained about what they say is Home Affairs’ “discrimination” against citizens who do not have access to computers, smartphones and the internet.

Home Affairs spokesperson Siya Qoza did not respond to requests for comment.