The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on National Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, to urgently address severe delays at Home Affairs offices across the country where citizens have been met with complete service paralysis due to staff shortages.
I have received a number of reports from South Africans using the festive period to obtain official documentation from Home Affairs, only to wait in queues for hours and days on end with no assistance.
This complete lack of services is not only unacceptable from a State Department, but places thousands at unnecessary risk of Covid-19 infection where small crowds begin to gather around Home Affairs offices and social distancing becomes impossible.
Minister Motsoaledi should have anticipated this unique set of circumstances surrounding Home Affairs offices in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and a contingency plan should have been formulated and put into place. Failure to do so has placed the lives of many South Africans at risk, and Minister Motsoaledi must account for this.
South Africa’s coronavirus pandemic affects each and every state department in some way. Minister Motsoaledi’s inability to accommodate the needs of South Africans at Home Affairs offices at this time is unacceptable. The Minister must intervene in this service collapse as a matter of urgency.