More than 200,000 people have used the Department of Home Affairs’ online booking system to make appointments since 1 June this year, it emerged in Parliament.

A delegation of Home Affairs officials led by Deputy Minister Njabulo Nzuza briefed Parliament’s home affairs oversight committee on its mission to reduce queues and sort out network downtimes. Ironically, many MPs and officials had network connectivity issues during Tuesday’s virtual briefing. 

While the meeting was a follow-up to one held in 2021, issues of long queues, offline systems and poor services are nothing new. 

Daily Maverick has a file on Home Affairs, titled Hell Affairs. Find some of the articles here:

Queue, the beloved country – Welcome to Aaron Motsoaledi’s dysfunctional Department of Home Affairs 

MPs rip into Motsoaledi over department’s ‘sins’ — long queues, offline systems and shambolic immigration services

Till Home Affairs us do part: couple can’t say ‘I do’ because they’re still married to their dead spouses

No one is exempt from the Home Affairs omnishambles

Read in Daily Maverick: “Theft, vandalism cost Home Affairs billions, but department shows signs of improvement”

200,000 clients served

During the briefing, Thulani Mavuso, the department’s Deputy Director General: Institutional Planning and Support, said that since 1 June 2022, more than 200,000 clients had used the online booking system. 

This is a pilot project in 162 branches across the country.

Mavuso said offices were being equipped with tablets to allow officials to help clients who did not have computers to book appointments online. 

He said Home Affairs offices such as Centurion and Randburg have up to 95 appointments a day. Mavuso said this showed the department was “getting somewhere in this regard”. However, the system was not without problems: while one can make an appointment to apply for an identity document or passport, one cannot make an appointment to collect it.

Committee members raised several questions about the online system. While the DA’s Adrian Roos said the online booking system was a good idea, he questioned how people who were poor or did not have smartphones would benefit.

Kavilan Pillay (ANC) questioned if and when the online booking system would be permanent.

Home Affairs Director-General Tommy Makhode said the booking system involved a hybrid approach, where walk-ins were allowed. 

“[There is] no office that is not accepting walk-ins,” he said. 

Challenges, mobile units and more appointments

During the briefing, EFF MP Lorato Tito questioned the costs of vandalism at Home Affairs. In its presentation, the department said incidents of cable theft and vandalism affected infrastructure. Fibre networks were cut, which affected connectivity.

Makhode said that while there were no exact costs that could be attached to this sort of vandalism, the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry put the figure at between R5-billion and R7-billion a year.

Mavuso said the department had presented a case to Treasury for an additional allocation for its compensation of employees’ budget. Treasury then approved funding for 742 posts within the department.

All posts for front office managers have now been funded and are being filled in the current financial year, the department said.

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At the Border Management Authority, 200 border guard and seven administrative positions were filled as of 21 October. 

In August, the department announced plans to recruit 10,000 young people to help digitise departmental civic records.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Minister lays out plan to recruit 10,000 young South Africans for three-year project to digitise civic records”

On mobile units, the department said there were 110 units across the country, with 106 across provinces and four based at head office which were used for special projects.

According to the department, 126,202 smart ID applications were processed through mobile units in the 2021/22 financial year. In the first half of the year, 111,958 cards were collected. An additional 20 mobile units were being procured in the 2022/23 financial year. 

Committee chairperson Mosa Chabane said oversight visits at some Home Affairs offices were planned. DM