TZANEEN: ‘Undivided attention’ to be given to issues at Home Affairs

Queuing for hours, no seating and rude staff, these are the daily headaches at the Tzaneen Home Affairs offices.

Read: TZANEEN: Home  Affairs horrors

LETABA HERALD reported extensively on the state of affairs that residents must brace on a daily basis when visiting the department.

But the department of Home Affairs launched the “War on Queues” Campaign on Sunday at the Ronnie Mamoepa Media Centre in Pretoria .

Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has directed his Department to prepare a comprehensive report and strategy on managing long queues at home affairs offices across the country. Since his return to the Department, Gigaba has been inundated with calls from members of the public regarding time spent at offices for documents like smart ID cards, passports and certificates.

The department said fake news isn’t helping as it commissions a customersatisfaction survey and improves its client contact centre.

Read: Home Affairs: This treatment has nothing to do with false rumours

According to Gigaba “brutal, zero tolerance approach” will be applied to staff who were under performing since poor management of staff contributed to frustrating long queues at the departments.

Gigaba, saying he would immediately respond to complaints and queries by the public regarding the time consuming service at the home affairs offices. Customers across the city, expressed frustration and irritation with department officials cutting off the queue long before closing time despite the fact some people had queued since the early morning. Many took to social media to vent their frustrations.

“I received an SMS telling me to come to the branch to collect my passport and I went there. But I was shocked to learn that I had to queue on the long line outside for something that could be done in two minutes. The employees were also rude more like dictators. I ended up queuing for four hours without any help, I now have to take another day off from work just to pick up a passport,” a frustrated resident Karel van der Gryp told LETABA HERALD in February.

An assessment report compiled by the department showed that poor management and poor utilisation of staff in some offices were contributing factors to long queues, Gigaba said.

“We are concerned by queries from members of the public and the media about the time spent at our offices. We heard your cry. Our challenges include poor management at our offices. Management skills leave much to be desired. We need to be clinical and brutal in performance management,” said Gigaba.

Another large contributor to long queues was fake news about the discontinuation of the green barcoded ID books, which has created panic across the country; many have rushed to their nearest office to apply for a smart ID card.

Read: Green ID book remains a legal form of identification

“That increased volumes tremendously. We have a real problem of fake news in South Africa. This fake news caused credibility harm to the department and created a crisis. We won’t discontinue the green barcoded ID book this year. We will announce our plan in due course,” said Gigaba. To improve service, 78 mobile offices are currently being refurbished to be distributed across the country in the second half of the year.

“This is not going to be a quick fix. It will be a process, one that we are committed to despite budgetary constraints and capacity restrictions. We have chosen to intervene innovatively to further improve the services we render to the public,” said the minister.

Source: The Citizen