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Kaya Drive: Will extending Home Affairs hours lead to efficiency?

By: Natasha Archary

Kaya Drive listeners weigh in on whether extending operating hours at Home Affairs will lead to efficiency with service delivery.

The Department of Home Affairs systems went offline on Friday, 01 April 2022, impacting service delivery after a cable breakage.

Since then, the department and the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) have been able to fix the break and services have been restored.

The disruption was nationwide and angry South Africans lambasted Home Affairs after having taken the day off to get to offices across the country.

Standing in queues for hours only to be told that the system is offline and will be until repairs are made.

To make up for the inconvenience, Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi issued instructions that the Department will extend operating hours on Monday, 04 April to ensure all clients that were affected on Friday are served.

However, many felt the one day extension would not be sufficient to attend to the scores of South Africans who queue at Home Affairs branches on a daily basis.

The extended hours on Monday will be until 18h30 and many South Africans are calling for this to be the department’s new operating hours.

We queue for hours at Home Affairs

Despite assurances by the Department that the system is back up and running, on Monday several South Africans shared that they were turned away from branches in Johannesburg due to the system being offline.

The standard “system offline” excuses South Africans receive from representatives, which occur even when branches just open.

Apart from the endless queues, many listeners feel that Home Affairs representatives lack basic courtesy and take people’s time for granted.

“They’re always pretending like they’re busy meanwhile they just go for breaks whenever they feel like it and make us wait.”

Some South Africans feel the services offered at Home Affairs can easily be managed by banks and post office branches.

One irate listener shared, “Department of Home Affairs Soweto, I’ve been waiting for hours in the line and they say the system is offline. I even made an appointment but it means NOTHING. They said if the system doesn’t come online you have to book a new slot and come another day.”

Listen to the conversation on Kaya Drive:

Also read: SARS collected over R1.5 trillion in taxes in the last year

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