Smart card applications fuel frustration

PEOPLE have shared their frustration of applying for a smart card ID at Pinetown Home Affairs.

This happened after an article was published in the Highway Mail on Friday 30 May, Get your smart card at Pinetown Home Affairs.

People have complained that there is no order in the Pinetown office. One of the residents said she arrived at 7.30am and was told that she could even finish the process at 2.30pm.

Another resident said he had been at the Home Affairs a couple of times and every time he got there he was told that the system is offline.

Pinetown Home Affairs manager, Ronnie Perumal said there will be complaints due to the large number of people coming in to apply for smart cards.

“There are mainly pensioners coming in and it becomes impossible to prioritize all of them.

“The other issue is that they are requested to queue from outside of the building while other public members applying for services such as passports, birth certificates etc are allowed to enter the building.

” We were further burdened with the problem of our computer being off-line on Monday 3 June from 7.30am to 2pm and Tuesday morning from 7.30am to 9.15am.

Perumal said people must also bear in mind that they only have one computer to process these applications and we are averaging approximately 60 applications per day in a normal day.

“Most public members coming in especially pensioners do not want to wait in the queues which is unfortunately unavoidable.

“We as a department are therefore sending the public away if we feel we will be unable to accommodate them on the day. We are aware that they are old and cannot be kept outside waiting indefinitely,” said Perumal.

What readers have to say

I had a very bad experience trying to get my smart card from the Commercial Road Durban Office. Maybe at Pinetown Home Affairs Office things are different there but the Commercial Road Office has no system for the over 60’s and it is in an absolute shambles.

To be fair, after a few days of applying I received an SMS that my smart card is ready for collection.

I think this is very quick, because they did say 14 days, which seems to indicate that their back office is very efficient but it is their front office that needs sorting out.

My concern now is that I will have to return to the front office to collect my card and from what I saw the queue was very long at the collection counter and there is no special queue for the over 60s who have to queue with everyone else for everything else e.g. passports, birth certificates etc.

Clive Wilson

Hillcrest

My wife went to apply for her new SA ID smart card at the Pinetown Home Affairs. She was born in May and is a pensioner, so she was eligible to apply.

On Friday 10 May after waiting about half an hour she was told that the system was down. She returned on Saturday 11 May and after a long wait in the queue, was told by an official behind the counter, that she does not qualify for the new smart card, as she was not born in RSA, despite the fact that she is a SA citizen. So the message to all you readers who are SA Citizens, do not apply for the new ID smart card if you were born outside of RSA. One would have thought a notice to this effect could have been displayed in a prominent place, as one entered the Home Affairs Offices !

Alf Logan

Pinetown

Last Wednesday’s Highway Mail concerning the obtaining of smart cards at Pinetown now refers. On Monday morning I decided that as it was raining and early- about 8.30 am, it would be a good time to try to apply for my new ID card. In order to approach the main parking ramp from the Hillcrest side, one has to turn right at the robot in order to turn around, and drive through a pretty scary part of Pinetown (taxi rank area). On arriving at the office I was informed that only 40 cards had been issued and by 9am I was number 41 and I would have to come back again. The abrupt supervisor informed me that there was nothing she could do about it either and that I had 7 years in which to re-apply!

Surely Mr Perumal could have foreseen that there would have been a “rush” on applications and ordered vast numbers of the cards – as it happens my birthday is in January and I am “over 60” , I could have been one of the first applicants to receive my new ID had I been prepared to drive to Durban’s Home Affairs office, which is also not in a very good part of town. I therefore would have been quite happy to sit and wait for as long as it took to get the application done in Pinetown had there been enough of them available. (The article said that it would take 15 minutes!!!! – ha! ha!) Beware and be prepared to be frustrated too!!!

Jean O’Reilly

Hillcrest

I refer to your story on smart card IDs.

In particular “ Senior citizens from 60 years upward are given priority

Can some senior citizens who have been through the process with Pinetown Home Affairs give me some hints on the best approach?

Thank you,

Hillcrest senior citizen.

On page 2 of your paper dated 30 May, Ronnie Perumal told the world that it takes 15 minutes to apply for a smart card.

Well, armed with a copy of your newspaper I visited the Home Affairs in Pinetown.After sitting in a queue for 30 minutes with no sign of any movement I looked for Ronnie to ask him why it was oh so slow.

Alas, no Ronnie, no movement, no success, no patience and definitely no smart card.

Peter