‘Dirty’ Home Affairs slammed

Complaints of delays in service delivery, as well as unhygienic conditions, have been levelled against Dundee’s Department of Home Affairs.
This comes after Democratic Alliance (DA) Councillor, Jabulani Mfeka, encountered these pitfalls while helping an indigent woman obtain an identity document (ID). According to Councillor Mfeka, he was assisting a woman who had misplaced her ID about eight years ago, and took her to the Home Affairs office on Willson Street at 9am.
However, three hours later they were still waiting to be assisted. The aggrieved Councillor decided to take action and approached the supervisor. He was not the only infuriated customer to complain; Patrick Dlamini, who was also waiting to be served, was also full of complaints. Mr Dlamini, who lives in Pretoria, was there to apply for a Smart Card ID while visiting a relative in Dundee. During this time, he too was met with long queues and delays in service. It was then that both he and Councillor Mfeka took their plight to the Courier. While service delivery delays are a major complaint, others who contacted the Courier vented their disgust over the state of the public toilets at the Home Affairs office and the general cleanliness of the premises.

They alleged that the toilets are overflowing and dirty while dead cockroaches are ‘the norm’. The floors are littered and the floors dirty.
While the Courier is still awaiting official comment from the Home Affairs Department, an anonymous source said the insurmountable problems comes as a result of the Department being ‘short staffed’. The source further attributed the dirty conditions that pose possible health hazards to the lack of a cleaner and the delayed service delivery to the lack of manpower to operate all functions within the Department.
The Department of Home Affairs was approached for comment, but at the time of going to print, no comment had been received.