The Department of Home Affairs renders additional services as part of Level 4 lockdown and returns to normal operational hours.
The services provided include:
*Collection of Identity Documents (smartcard or green ID book)
*Temporary Identity certificates
*Death registrations
*Re-issuing of birth certificates
*Birth registrations (children born from 26 February)
According to Ramotshabi Mathe, manager of the Department of Home Affairs offices of Potchefstroom, they haven’t yet had challenges particularly with alerting parents that they may come to register their babies.
He added that the processes have been going smoothly and that the public has responded well to the additional services.
As instructed by the government, the offices observe the Level 4 regulations such as wearing masks, the use of sanitiser, and receive a temperature reading before entering the facility. He further confirms that the offices have been disinfected and have recently received their certificate as proof.
Due to the Level 5 lockdown, there was a backlog on a number of services, such as birth registration. However, since the transition to Level 4, the officials have been working on making up for the lost time.
Previously, birth registrations were not permitted during Level 5 but parents of newborn babies could receive documents at their Hospitals that confirmed the birth of their child/children. Mathe says only a few babies had exceeded the period of 30 days for registration but the parents managed to successfully register them during this level.
The Department contacted all the parents that were recorded by the various hospitals and according to Mathe, most of them have come to the offices to register their babies. “We hope that by Thursday, we will be done. The manner in which we called them in, the last group is planned for Thursday,” he said.
The offices operate from Monday to Friday, from 08:00 – 16:00, but for the public it is from 08:30 – 15:45.
Overall, he mentioned that the public has been adhering to the social distancing, and the staff members are observing the regulations stipulated to prevent transmission.
