System down-times causing long queues
Frequent system failures due to power cuts, unresponsive generators and problems with Telkom data lines are among the causes of long queues at home affairs outlets. About 20 system down-times were experienced a month, said Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba in a briefing to journalists on Monday. /
Frequent system failures due to power cuts, unresponsive generators and problems with Telkom data lines are among the causes of long queues at Home Affairs outlets.
About 20 system downtimes were experienced a month, said Home Affairs Minister-Malusi Gigaba in a briefing to journalists on Monday.
As a result of such bottlenecks, the department’s “War on Queues” campaign, launched in April, had got off to a slow start.
The campaign seeks to focus on digitalisation in order to streamline services to South Africans and other clients.
Among the solutions proposed was the modernisation of nine more offices, bringing outlets with live-capture capabilities to 193.
This will enable the automatic registration of birth certificates, reissue of marriage and death certificates and the printing of parents’ details in children’s passports.
Various banks have also come on board in offering services such as smart ID card and passport applications.
Gigaba said information technology (IT) company Dimension Data has been hired to assess networks at the department’s 184 live-capture offices in order to establish the cause of inefficiencies.
On Monday Discovery and Investec became the latest banks to sign up for the Home Affairs live-capture pilot.
The banks were expected to help clients apply for smart ID cards and passports online and collect the products at Home Affairs offices.
Gigaba said the department was also looking at interventions to ensure its offices were able to prioritise people who applied online.
The department has also established mechanisms to deal with the average waiting time.
Gigaba said it took between 25 and 30 minutes for products to be issued to clients, and workflows would be altered to enforce shorter waiting periods.
“A monitoring tool was developed to measure average waiting time, from the time the client receives a ticket to the time the client receives the product or service.
“This analysis necessitated a review of the workflow process. This work includes a pilot to redesign the workflow so that we separate those collecting passports from the ones collecting smart ID cards,” he said.