‘My 4am start at Home Affairs Umgeni Road’

ON Thursday, 2 March, after procrastinating for almost a year, I made my way to Home Affairs in Umgeni Road. My daughter Nia is in matric and an ID is imperative for learners registering to write their matric exams.

We arrived at the gates of Home Affairs at 4.03am and parked on the road – the gates were locked. At that time, we counted 23 people already in line before us. We unpacked our two camp chairs and sat on the edge of the pavement. People who did not know to bring chairs sat on the grass.

At 4.45am three men started at the beginning of the queue asking people what they had come for and writing down each person’s ID number in a black hard cover book. The men carried torches and wore badges as a means of identification.

Read also – How to survive a trip to Home Affairs 

At 5am the gates to the yard of Home Affairs were opened. By then the queue had grown considerably and people who had parked on the road made a mad rush to move their cars into the premises of the government institution.
People were also moved into the yard and made to start another queue, this time in line to the entrance of the building.

At 6.10am another Home Affairs employee came along and gave each person a number. Turns out we were number 15 in the queue. At the same time people who were coming to collect were taken to another queue – this queue was considerably shorter.

Read also – Home Affairs says no cut-off date for green barcoded IDs

At 8.10am we were allowed into the building itself. By 9.30am we were done and by 10.07am I received an sms which acknowledged receipt of our ID application.

What you need to know:

• If you are applying for a temporary ID you need two ID photos.
• Your pen must be black.
• Camp chairs are essential as there is no seating outside the building and they only allow a few people in at a time.
• The toilets are dirty and do not have toilet paper.
• Pregnant women, people in wheelchairs, people with walking sticks are sent straight to the front of the queue.
• There are cheats who jump the queue, so be alert.