Video by Kamogelo Moichela
Johannesburg - Department of Home Affairs Gauteng provincial manager Mamokubung Moroke admitted during the DA’s visit today to the Home Affairs office in the Johannesburg CBD that they lacked resources and capacity to handle the large number of people coming to the department.
This comes after DA leader John Steenhuisen led a DA delegation on an oversight inspection of the Home Affairs office in the Johannesburg CBD.
During the inspection, Steenhuisen said the department’s systems were broken, and they were not serving residents or immigrants who were trying to sort out their legal documents.
“The problem is with the Home Affairs Department. You can see the dysfunctionality, and I am glad the DA gets things done. We have two trucks here today that they sent because they knew we were coming,” he said.
While chatting to the individuals in the queue, the DA leader said he discovered that the queue usually runs down the street with no shelter and people have to pay up to R100 just to secure a place in the queue.
However, Gauteng DA leader Solly Msimanga said he was shocked to see the department’s trucks outside the building because normally there is nothing when he passes by.
“We were talking to a lady in a queue who has been here from 4am. Why does it have to take us coming here for her to get assistance, why does it have to be that way?
"We cannot live in a country where people only do their job because there is somebody else sitting in their background or watching them. People need to do their job each and every single day and take pride in that. This is why we have a country that is falling apart,” he maintained.
Video: Kamogelo Moichela
He also explained that they were going to reach the minister and find out the step that can be taken to ensure that the system does not go off-line.
According to the DA, their inspection today was to check if the systems were operating well and if people were being assisted in a good manner.
Philisiwe Khumalo, one of the people in the queue, said she had come to the department numerous times and still did not get the help she needed. “The problem is my ID, and when I come here, they say it’s not on the system and I should have had it for several months,” she said.
Addressing the media after meeting with the management, Steenhuisen said electronic systems should be introduced at Home Affairs, so that they would know who could enter the country and who could not.
“Our sympathies are with the Zimbabwean national who was killed last week in Diepsloot. That is the ultimate end where you misdirect the anger.
"The anger should be here at Home Affairs, outside the Union Buildings and Parliament because its government ministers are falling so fundamentally,” he said.
He said Operation Dudula and other operations would have devastating and dangerous consequences for South Africa.