The DA in Stellenbosch on Thursday 7 April launched a petition for Parliament urgently to intervene to prevent a complete collapse of service delivery at the Home Affairs Office in Stellenbosch.
This follows numerous complaints from members of the public about the shocking state of the office.
Dr Leon Schreiber, DA Constituency Head: Stellenbosch Municipality, submitted a series of parliamentary questions to the Minister of Home Affairs on the office and its levels of functionality on 25 February.
He said: “In his response, minister Aaron Motsoaledi was forced to admit that the Stellenbosch Home Affairs Office is close to outright collapse.”
Schreiber says according to Home Affairs’ own service-access model the Stellenbosch office is supposed to be staffed by 41 officials if it is to attend to the needs of the local community adequately.
“But the office currently has only six staff members, meaning it is operating at only 14% capacity,” he said. “The office is also supposed to be at least 1 746 m² in size, but in reality the Stellenbosch office is four times too small, at only 406 m².”
Schreiber says if the office was properly staffed and sized in terms of Home Affairs’ own plan, it would be able to serve 168 000 customers per year or 811 people per day.
“However, the minister admits, ‘due to the office space constraints and internal capacity, the office can only accommodate 222 clients that queue in Stellenbosch daily’.”
In response to the DA’s parliamentary questions, the minister has undertaken to recruit four more officials from the end of March.
But, says Schreiber, that will still leave the office woefully short of the space and the 41 officials it needs to operate properly.
“In the well-run, DA-led Stellenbosch Municipality we refuse to accept such pathetically low standards. Our residents deserve better.
“We call on all residents who are sick and tired of standing in endless queues at Home Affairs to contact their local DA councillor or branch to add their name to our petition.
The petition will force the Department of Home Affairs to appear before Parliament and account for the way in which it has let the people of Stellenbosch down.”
