Question NW1464 to the Minister of Home Affairs

Reply:

(a) The mandate of sourcing office accommodation for departments lies with the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI).

Umlazi - Currently the office has a small office at the Magistrate’s Court in Umlazi rendering the following services: Birth and Death registration, Amendments, Rectifications and Green Barcoded IDs; the Department is however looking at relocating the current Prospecton Medium Office to Umlazi and modernise the office.  The Department is currently in negotiations with the Department of Public works and the Ethekwini Metro Municipality to obtain suitable premises. A possible Public Works premises has been identified but it needs substantial renovations.  We aim to have the new office in Umlazi fully functional and operational by the end of the 2021/22 financial year.  The reason for these extended projections is that the building identified need extensive renovations and there is a dependency on Public Works to finalise and move forward with the project.

(b) Chatsworth - The Department currently have a Medium office situated in the Chatsworth area operating from the SASSA building in the centre of Chatsworth. We are already operational in this area with the following services: Birth, Marriages and Death registration, Amendments, Rectifications, and Green Barcoded IDs. The DPWI has provided a report to the department detailing the renovation costs and these were too high to warrant the department of Home Affairs to continue with the renovations. The Department of Home Affairs has thus requested DPWI to source suitable alternative accommodation so that the Chatsworth office can be relocated and modernised. The time frame for modernisation will depend on DPWI sourcing the alternative accommodation.

One must take note that due to the COVID-19 pandemic the department has reprioritised funding to help manage this pandemic within the operations and this is likely to have an impact on the above plan.

END