Lack of management crux of the problem of total incompetence at Home Affairs

I WISH I could be as positive about my experience with the Department of Home Affairs as Margaret Rundle (Cape Times, June 23). If only I could have had dealings with people like Ms Davids and Ms Valley.

For about 40 years I have been conducting autopsies for families who want closure after the death of a loved one. In the main, these are cases where there is no suggestion of foul play or unnatural death. These autopsies are conducted in local funeral parlours, not at the State Mortuary. Two weeks ago I conducted one such autopsy, found a mechanism of death and filled in the death and cremation certificates. When the funeral parlour representative handed these in with the request for a burial order in Cape Town, she was told that she had to have a case number issued by the police. This has never been necessary before. She was then bounced from pillar to post, or rather from Cape Town to Wynberg and back again, to the great distress of the family, until eventually I wrote an explanatory letter which was finally accepted. No one seemed to know who was responsible for this ignorance and incompetence.

Within a week of this episode my wife and I were asked to be witnesses at a marriage at the Home Affairs Department’s premises in Wynberg. The couple were asked to report at 10.45am, which they duly did. In the first instance, no record of their appointment was found. That was sorted out and we were then told to go to the Marriage Room. There we sat for an hour and 20 minutes. Each person we attempted to accost for information disappeared into the nearest doorway. No one seemed to be in authority in the entire establishment. Eventually the marriage officer arrived, all smiles, with no word of explanation or apology. Guests waiting at the reception venue kicked their heels for 45 minutes or more until the bridal couple arrived.

Total lack of management seems to be the crux of the problem at the Department of Home Affairs.