Question NW1566 to the Minister of Home Affairs
18 May 2022 - NW1566
Komane, Ms RN to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
(a) What are the reasons that his department has discontinued the working hours of his department’s office on a Saturday and (b) how has that decision affected the functioning of his department?
Reply:
a) The Department desperately want Home Affairs offices to open on Saturdays. The type of services rendered by Home Affairs offices fall in the same category as services rendered by Police Services and Clinics.
Unfortunately, the Unions took the matter to the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) and made it a subject of negotiations, it ended in a stalemate. We wanted Saturday work done through the shift system in the same way Police and Nurses do. However, the unions insist on deploying the same people who work during the week hours, but paying them overtime.
Should we agree, the Department will be forced into paying overtime for life/permanent overtime and this is untenable. The Department has submitted to Cabinet a Home Affairs Bill which will change the nature of Home Affairs Department into a security Department which is entitled to open on weekends.
b) It has affected it negatively, because we could reduce long queues through Saturday work. It is affecting clients in a bad way, especially clients who work during the week and have no time to visit Home Affairs because they are always at work. Ironically, I believe this affect members of unions the most.
END