Waiting game

PACKING your camping chair, umbrella, beverages and snacks usually means a trip to the beach. But for many people, it has come to signify a trip to the offices of Home Affairs. Well aware that they could easily spend many hours in the queue, people have come prepared to wait. And wait. And wait.

The problems in the department are many, and manifest. In Durban, they start in the queue and extend into its various sections.

First, the queue. Ordinarily, you arrive and count the people ahead of you, and know where you stand.

Not at Home Affairs, though. Here, one person can represent eight people, “holding places” for people who will arrive at their leisure and take their places at the front, having paid hundreds of rand for the “service”.

In a time of a depressed economy and few employment opportunities, this is enterprising indeed, and while perhaps not illegal, it is certainly unfair on those prepared to wake up in the wee hours and those unable to pay the “spot holders”. It is unfair to queue all day without being served.

Home Affairs security guards and officials say they are unable to do anything about it.

It appears this is one of many things they cannot do. Get to the front counter and you will often be told you are in the wrong queue or that the computer system is off-line. Ablution facilities and seating are also limited, meaning discomfort for the elderly, disabled and pregnant women.

The queues are not likely to get shorter soon.

Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba unfortunately is at the mercy of his director-general, from whom he requested a plan to address the issue. What, if any, pressure is being brought to bear on Mkuseli Apleni to expedite the matter is unclear.

Gigaba must take ownership of the issues, but does not appear to appreciate the critical nature of the services his department is tasked with delivering, and how they affect people’s lives.

People need to be able to readily register marriages, births and deaths, and apply for and receive identity documents and passports, the lack of which prevent people from being able to open bank accounts, register for grants and to travel.

Gigaba is only two months into the job, but this is his second stint after a year’s hiatus as finance minister and he must deal with the mess he has re-inherited.