Question NW1948 to the Minister of Home Affairs
07 June 2023 - NW1948
Madokwe, Ms P to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
In light of the fact that Home Affairs offices servicing mostly rural and impoverished persons, such as Home Affairs in Engcobo Local Municipality, who have been lamenting network issues and that they are using old equipment that often crashes (details furnished), what (a) are the reasons that he has failed to ensure South African citizens in rural areas are able to get documents on time and (b)(i) steps and (ii) are the deadlines thereof that will be undertaken to ensure that the matter is resolved?
Reply:
a) The department’s footprint is not adequate for the population of our country and I have taken a decision to move away from focusing on static bricks and mortar only offices but to increase the footprint of mobile offices that will go to the people instead of people going to the offices and I have personally led many outreach programmes to rural communities in Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
(b)(i) The department will be adding an additional 100 mobile units in the 2023/24 financial year to increase its mobile fleet to 227 units. This increase will ensure that under-served rural areas receive regular visits and quicker turnaround time in receiving their documents.
(b)(ii) The additional 100 units are expected in the fourth quarter of the current financial year.
END