Question NW1994 to the Minister of Social Development
11 July 2023 - NW1994
Arries, Ms LH to ask the Minister of Social Development
(1)Whether the implementation of the queue management system has been effective in light of the long queues that persist even though millions of Rand were spent on the specified system; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details; (2) what total amount will it cost to implement the specified system in the whole Republic?
Reply:
1) The queue management project team is currently at the follow-up and evaluation stage of the project, post GO-LIVE. During this stage, the team is performing ongoing monitoring and system performance evaluation to provide support, additional training, and adjustments to local offices who have implemented the queue management system. This process will allow the team to establish the baseline in terms of current waiting times and be able to measure the effectiveness of the system.
However, it is important to note that a queue management system is about improving the efficiency of managing queues in the local office. These efficiencies mainly contribute to maintain order within the local office and may have a spill over effect on time spent in the office.
This collectively with other systems – such as the online application system (which reduces demand), the self-help kiosk that are to be rolled out later (to reduce the need for human interaction through self-service), express queues, as well as the ongoing capacitation offices with alternative energy supplier – are all part of the larger strategies to reduce times spent in queues.
(2) In 2022/23 SASSA did a pilot implementation of the system at approximately 23 offices and intends to extend this to another 27 offices in the current financial year. Different use-cases and scenarios are being evaluated. Part of this exercise will be a full costing for roll out at all the 422 local offices, however high-level costing suggest that it will cost approximately R52 million. This cost is for the hardware (computers, screens and printers) and consumables (paper, etc), thus the plan is to roll this out progressively over time within the existing baseline of the Agency.