Home Affairs extends operating hours ahead of elections
The temporary extension is only meant to resolve congestion at the identified offices.
THE Department of Home Affairs announced it will extended its operating hours across the country this weekend, ahead of the local government elections.
The aim of the extension is to accommodate citizens who would like to collect or apply for identity documents (IDs) to enable them to vote on Monday.
There are more than 370 000 IDs that had not been collected by the end of last week.
Read also: Two thirds of South Africans aren’t voting, survey reveals
The Home Affairs minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said they had received 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. We learnt that this wrong practice of sending people home can happen as early as 07:00. 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.
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