Department of Home Affairs plans to tackle long queues
NETWORK issues, staff shortages and cable theft have been cited as causes of service delivery disruptions and long queues at Department of Home Affairs (DHA) offices.
These issues that have plagued various branches, including Empangeni and Richards Bay, were outlined by Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, who tabled the department’s budget vote on Tuesday.
Dr Motsoaledi said plans to address this include upgrading IT systems and increasing staff at branches.
A total of R266-million has been allocated to help ‘push staffing level to at least 42% by hiring an additional 764 employees’.
‘We have complained on numerous occasions that our front offices are only 39% staffed and, of course, this contributes in no small measure to long queues,’ said Motsoaledi.
He further sympathised with thousands of community members who queue for hours only to be informed ‘all systems are down’.
‘Many people simply believe DHA computers don’t work, and they keep asking us why we don’t fix the computers or buy new ones. We can’t blame them.
‘They don’t know that the problem of systems continuously going down goes beyond just fixing a computer,’ said Motsoaledi.
Announcing measures to tackle system downtime issues, Motsoaledi said State Information Technology Agency (SITA) is investing a total of R400-million in revamping its entire network, which will benefit the department.
Last month, DHA was hit by a cable break which connects to SITA, which affected services at Home Affairs branches, including Richards Bay.
‘In total, SITA has committed to spending almost R1-billion on IT infrastructure to support the DHA and others.
‘But we know the department will be one of the major beneficiaries,’ said Motsoaledi.
He said eight IT engineers from a leading bank will be brought onboard to assist in stabilising the network and installing some key IT infrastructure.
‘As a further relief measure, we have bought 10 extra mobile offices for R15-million and will add another 15 for R20-million this financial year,' he added.
Motsoaledi said the department's trucks were helpful after last month's flooding in and around Durban as thousands of residents lost their identity and personal documents, and had to apply for new ones.