The Department of Home Affairs in Mthatha has come up with a solution to minimise long queues, by creating an online booking system so that community members could visit these offices only on their appointment dates.
This was confirmed by acting manager, Yolanda Ntabeni, at a meeting that was held by members of KSD Home Affairs Stakeholder Forum in the PRD Building in Mthatha, last week.
It was attended by sister departments that work together with this department.
Ntabeni said they were also busy negotiating with a mobile operator so that it could be easy for their clients to just dial star (*) followed by the number they would be given when they wanted to make bookings.
“Our citizens can choose between these two alternatives when they want to visit our office, but the one for mobile operator had not yet been finalised,” she said.
“We used to have people who were sleeping here (for a place in the queue) but we managed to end that. Now we are busy trying all angles that could assist us to reduce this long queue. Another challenge we have is that we are not servicing only people of Mthatha. This led us to have this queue, but we are working hard to ensure that we are servicing our people in the right way,” said Ntabeni.
She also said that a mobile truck was now servicing Mthatha, Mqanduli, Tsolo and Qumbu. This truck has been provided for people who live very far from towns.
“We encourage parents to make identity documents for their children when they are 16 years old and not wait until they go to Grade 12.”
Among other things she talked about was the issue of death certificates where she said that the department had a new circular where people who want copies of death certificates would now need to bring a court order, unless applicants are biological parents or children of the deceased.
People who want to book online should visit www.dha.gov.za.
