The snaking queue at Home Affairs offices give South Africans a headache. Picture: X/@RobForbesDJ
Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber has vowed to end offline system and long queues that have frustrated South Africans at Home Affairs offices across the country.
South Africans currently dread going to Home Affairs offices after taking leave from work only to be told by officials that the “system is offline”, leaving them no choice but to come back another day.
Schreiber told 702 the words “system offline” is a pain.
“’System offline’, needs to become a swear word, it really is not acceptable. I know we often make jokes about it. South Africans are very good at dealing with these kinds of things by making jokes out of them. But I would like to be the minister where the ‘system is online, not offline.”
“There’s low-hanging fruit here. The reality is that the internet infrastructure that is failing Home Affairs in many cases is something that can be fixed. We are living in the year 2024, for goodness sake, we’ve got Artificial Intelligence, how can we not have fast enough internet connections at these offices,” Schreiber questioned.
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The minister said “system offline” will be a thing of the past.
“This is going to be a very key focus for me. I think there is opportunity to make real visible impact in this regard and what we need to do is get people with the skills around the table to help us solve this problem in a way that does not become a tender bonanza.”
Last week, Schreiber extended the temporary concession for foreigners who were awaiting the outcome of visa, waiver and appeal applications.
“These are people that are contributing to South Africa, that are helping us build the economy, that are spending money when they come as tourists and who want to extend their visas, or who have applied for appeals or waiver or all kinds of other mechanisms through home affairs, but who have been waiting so long for the department to process that paperwork.”
Schreiber said the visa applicants cannot be left in a lurch.
“Ironically, if you care about tackling illegal immigration, then you should be supporting the department of home affairs to fix our legal process so that we make it possible for people to come to this country in a legal, orderly, organised manner so that we can than say to them ‘there’s absolutely no excuse to come in illegally,” Schreiber said.
There have been increasing calls for Schreiber to reverse his decision to extend the deadline for visa applications.
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