Pensioners sleep on pavement for IDs

LIMPOPO – HUNDREDS of people, a large number being pensioners, who frequently visit the home affairs offices in Tzaneen, say the long queues they are forced to stand in are a nightmare.

They said they were forced to stand in long queues for hours before they were assisted.

Most pensioners said they arrived at home affairs as early as 03:00 in the hope of being assisted earlier, but despite this, they still ended up leaving late in the afternoon without having been assisted.

People who spoke with CV said this was due to officials taking their time when attending to smart card ID applications, and the machine used to process the applications being offline sometimes.

Nyanisi Mathebula, a pensioner, said she had to report to home affairs for three days running before she was assisted, and had to pay a total of R300 for transport. She said officials had told her twice to go back home because the machine used to process applications for smart cards was offline.

She said she was helped after visiting the offices for the third time.

Another pensioner, who wished to remain anonymous, said the overcrowding at home affairs mostly took place during the beginning of every month after they received their grants.

“We are told that we will not receive another grant if we still have an old ID,” the pensioner said.

When CV visited home affairs in Tzaneen last week, some pensioners were seen sleeping on the pavement outside the offices waiting for their turn to be assisted.

Most of the pensioners are from Modjadji, Maake, Sekororo and N’wamitwa.

According to Tzaneen home affairs manager, Eddie Maphosa, in most instances the overcrowding was caused by the poor network as applications for the smart card ID’s were done online. He said overcrowding was not a regular occurrence.

Maphosa also said they experienced overcrowding during school holidays as many parents brought their their children to apply for their ID’s.