Question NW218 to the Minister of Home Affairs

Reply:

(1)(a) The average waiting time inside an office is calculated per service as different types of services follow different process flows. Where all systems are working and the offices do not experience load shedding, which now affects network coverage in the offices, the average waiting period for pre-booked services is 7 minutes; for birth, marriage, and death services is 10 minutes and 15 minutes for walk-in services.

(1)(b) There is constant monitoring of the queues to check that those who are waiting in the queue will indeed be served without being asked to come back on another day. The queues are divided into product categories and floor/ queue walkers check the queues at regular intervals to see if clients are eligible to apply for the enabling documents and if so, have the correct supporting documents. This is to avoid clients queueing for long periods only to be turned back for not having the correct supporting documents. The total number of clients on the queue at any given time is also reported to management for resource planning purposes. Each official is allocated a specific period to process an application to keep up with the demand on the booking system and clients in the offices.

(1)(c) The ticket allocation system only operates on ID or passport numbers which are validated against the National Population Register before a ticket is issued to a client. This helps to eliminate illegal blocking and selling of slots by agents.

(1)(d) ID numbers or passport numbers are used as unique identifiers by the system. A valid cellphone number or email addresses is required from clients for verification purposes and sending the reference numbers. The system is able to detect any duplicate active booking.

(1)(e) The Department undertook the Home Affairs Customer Satisfaction Survey during the 2022/2023 financial year. The objectives of the study were to assess citizens’ perceptions and satisfaction level of services provided by the DHA, identify and document main problems in service delivery of the Department, document service areas which needs improvement and provide appropriate recommendations to the management of Home Affairs on ways in which service delivery in the selected study areas could be improved. The implementation plan for this study was developed and recommendations are currently being implemented.

(2) The findings of the 2022/2023 survey were as follows:

For Citizens’ perceptions and satisfaction level of services provided by the DHA

• In summary, the 2022/2023 customer satisfaction research findings are a mixture of positive and negative news regarding DHA service delivery efforts across all service centers
• 96% of the customers surveyed endorsed the DHA pricing structure as affordable.
• When asked about the likelihood of recommending the DHA offices they visited using a scale where those who would recommend were captured as promoters, those neutral would be passives whilst those who would not recommend would be detractors. The majority of respondents (i.e. 82%) were DHA promoters whilst 6% were detractors, giving a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 76%. The higher the NPS is the healthier the brand. The main reasons mentioned by the minority that would not recommend DHA across all customer segments were poor customer service, slow customer service, and bad staff attitude.
• Friendliness of Home Affairs officials was highlighted as the biggest challenge.
• Most of the customers were serviced on the same day, however there were some who had to visit the Home Affairs more than once for the same service. For those who were not serviced on the same day their reasons were due to long queues, not having all the required documents and the system being offline.
• The findings show a general improvement in queue management, with an increase of the scores across the different customer interaction points.
• The DHA was generally praised for effectiveness – i.e. its capability to deliver expected output; and criticised for lack of efficiency.
• The findings indicate that most DHA customers visit the DHA offices for the application of birth certificates and smart IDs.

For Customer Satisfaction Score (CSI)

• Customer Satisfaction Score for each service channel was generally high with scores above 70%. However, harbours and airports had the highest satisfaction score of over 90% whereas refugee centers had the lowest score of 73%.
• Inaccessibility, waiting in unmanaged queues for long hours, and unwelcoming staff attitude emerged as the most popular barriers to service excellence at Home Affairs offices. These also include the ability of staff to resolve queries, wait to get attention, and fair treatment.

Overall, DHA online processes were rated relatively high. However, lack of speed, particularly regarding receiving documents, and the payment process, emerged as the most popular barrier to online service excellence.

END