Question NW2544 to the Minister of Home Affairs
15 July 2015 - NW2544
Singh, Mr N to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
With reference to the application made on 23 September 2014 by a certain person (name furnished) for a vault copy of his birth certificate which has still not been processed by the Department of Home Affairs (details furnished), (a) why has nothing as yet been forthcoming, despite repeated requests for information from his department, (b) on what date is the application expected to be completed and the certificate issued to the specified person, (c) what are the full reasons for the delay in issuing this document and (d) what steps have been taken to ensure that this type of delay and lack of feedback to applicants by his department does not occur in the future?
Reply:
(a-c) Applications for both a computerised unabridged and a vault copy of birth certificate were captured on the system on 6 October 2014. However, due to an oversight on the part of the official who received the application, only the computerised unabridged birth certificate was processed on 10 October 2014 and printed at the office of application on 13 October 2014. The vault copy was processed on 29 June 2015.
(d) The Department has put in place mechanisms where clients can enquire about the progress on their applications through its call centre. In addition it will strengthen the current controls and monitoring of these areas.