People stand in long queues at Home Affairs office in Isipingo. Picture: Bongani Mbatha / African News Agency (ANA) People stand in long queues at Home Affairs office in Isipingo. Picture: Bongani Mbatha / African News Agency (ANA)
Durban - Hundreds of people queuing at the Isipingo Home Affairs offices on Tuesday have been turned away. Aside from the usual inconvenience of a repeatedly crashing or offline system, the continuing woes and long queues have aggravated many.
In a Facebook video posted by Wentworth resident, Esmeen Usher, the outraged residents from the South Durban areas, who were desperately trying to get official documents had hoped that after spending hours in the queue, they would be attended to. However, they were later turned away.
An official in the video can be heard telling people in the queue that her office could only take 80 applications for new applications and ID collections, per day.
"This office is a media office, the target is 80 a day excluding that 20 that were left yesterday. So we've already taken 80, excluding those people which is 100 already overload of this office. So while you are standing here, it's your decision but you can not be served and I need to be frank and straightforward with you...You can not be served because it is late and if you are arguing anything it doesn't help," said the official in the video.
Usher said she was tired of leaving her home before dawn to wait outside the Home Affairs office, only to be turned away. “The queue is always long and its just pointless to wait but where else can we go? It’s the same everywhere,” she added.
Another person who had been queuing since 5am, Nomzamo Nkonki said it was frustrating to stand in the queue the whole day only to be turned away.
She suggested that Home Affairs should revive its mobile service units for schools, so she wouldn't have to take off work to assist her son apply for an ID.
“We can’t keep taking leave from work for nothing. The last time I was here I got as far as the door only to have the security guard close the door in my face.”
KZN Home Affairs provincial manager Cyril Mncwabe said the offices were experiencing high client volumes since the closure of schools, during this holiday period, that they were unable to cope with.
Mncwabe said communicating earlier to people in ques that they would not be seen is done to avoid confrontation that "sometimes happens when people are told towards the end of the day that they cannot be assisted and alternate arrangements are made for the following date."
oliver.meth@inl.co.za