Question NW1138 to the Minister of Home Affairs
05 April 2022 - NW1138
Van Minnen, Ms BM to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
(1) What steps will he take to resolve the ongoing complaint that offices of his department that are located in Somerset West Main Road in Helderberg, Western Cape, are heavily congested and oversubscribed; (2) how does he intend to deal with employees of his department who refuse to assist the general public in a respectful and dignified manner when they conduct themselves in a rude and obstreperous manner with the public and refuse to address them in English and/or Afrikaans while the public that are served by their office is mainly Afrikaans and/or English Home Language speakers; (3) whether there have been any disciplinary hearings and/or conduct enquiries regarding any member of the staff employed at the specified branch; if not, why not; if so, what (a) were the outcomes of the hearings and/or enquiry and (b) are the further relevant details?
Reply:
1. The Office Managers are responsible for sharing of information i.e. capacity intake, client volume inside and system stability with clients queueing outside. This must be done at regular intervals throughout the day. Furthermore, there are plans to strengthen capacity with the filing of vacant positions of additional front office staff during the financial year 2022/23.
2. As part of the Western Cape Complaint resolution mechanism, the contact details of the Office Manager, District Manager and Provincial Manager are displayed in all front offices. Complaints escalated to the Provincial Manager are being recorded and monitored. All Front Office staff are required to wear name tags. Once a specific complaint related to a staff member’s conduct was received the District Manager will investigate and apply the necessary corrective measures. The aggrieved client will be provided with feedback and assisted as part of redress. All the staff members from the Somerset West Office are multilingual and are required to address clients in English. The Office has staff who is proficient in other languages should there be a specific request from a client.
3. Yes. The complaint was related to the alleged discrimination against a member from the LGBTQI community in August 2021.
a) There was no disciplinary hearing due to a lack of evidence against any specific employee.
b) A training session for all staff was facilitated by the District Manager: Operations to update staff on prevailing policies.
END