Lazy Home Affairs staff rebuked for shoddy service

Lazy home affairs office staff who have long being turning queuing citizens away saying that there are too many people to serve in a day have at last received a sharp tongue lashing from Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi.

Some Home Affairs offices across the country have developed their own systems where people are sent away as early as 7am when local managers have decided that there are too many people waiting outside. In many cases, if citizens do not arrive as early as 4am to get a ‘lucky’ number in line, staff order them to go home and return the next day.

But now this shoddy treatment must come to an end Mostsoaledi warned his staff this week. He has also extended office hours at modernised home affairs offices, forcing his staff to work later to provide essential document services.

This means that citizens can now apply for passports, IDs, birth certificates and conduct other business during the Department of Home affairs extended business hours at more than 190 of its branches countrywide.

Motsoaledi announced the approval of the temporary extension of operating times at its modernised offices to deal with the department’s high demand for services, while lambasted staff for their shocking treatment of citizens at some offices. 

Out of the 412 Home Affairs offices, 197 are modernised live capture offices, which can process Smart ID Cards and passports. These offices will now be open for an additional two and a half hours from 8am  to 5.30pm, starting from Monday, 18 October 2021.

 “The Deputy Minister and I have been receiving a lot of complaints from irate citizens across the country. Most of these people have complained about a bad practice by some Home Affairs offices where queues are cut and people sent home presumably because there are already more than enough people to serve for the day,” Motsoaledi said.

“We learnt that this wrong practice of sending people home can happen as early as 7am. We want to emphasise that there is no government policy that provides for that and members of the public should not be treated like that. Where it happens, members of the public must challenge it, take down the name of the official who wants to send them home and raise it with the office manager,” Motsoaledi said.

Motsoaledi said the temporary extension was aimed to resolve congestion, which had increased over the last two weeks. He said the new intervention would be supported by the 100% return of staff to all offices.

 “The only people who will be sent home are those who arrive after 5.30pm. Everybody who arrives before 5.30pm should be served and not turned away,” Motsoaledi said.

 “Home Affairs exists to deliver enabling documents to people. We can’t turn away people who are looking for public services if they arrive within the stipulated hours of work,” Motsoaledi said.

He added that if the computer system was offline, the department would ensure quick intervention.

Senior managers will also visit offices unannounced to monitor operations on the ground.