Stellenbosch residents may be pleasantly surprised to hear the town will soon have a secondary branch of Home Affairs.
In response to a petition submitted by the DA Constituency Head: Stellenbosch and MP, Dr Leon Schreiber to Parliament, the Department of Home Affairs indicated on Tuesday (13 June) that another branch will be opened at the Absa building on the corner of Plein and Ryneveld Streets.
According to the Director-General of the Department of Home Affairs it is scheduled to open on Monday 26 June.
“This marks an important step forward in the DA’s ongoing work to improve the quality of Home Affairs in the Stellenbosch area,” Schreiber said, as Home Affairs fell under the control of national government and is not managed by the DA-led Stellenbosch Municipality.
“But that does not mean that we can turn a blind eye to the issues residents experience at Home Affairs.”
He said as a result of the DA’s work on this matter Stellenbosch residents will soon be able to enjoy expanded options and services.
The secondary branch will offer an online booking service, two counters, a photo booth and waiting area, and will enable residents to obtain ID cards and passports.
Over the past few years, he said, the DA had been inundated by complaints that Home Affairs in Stellenbosch was often “offline,” that there are too few staff members, and waiting times were inordinately long. In February last year Schreiber asked the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, to account for these ongoing issues.
In his response, Motsoaledi conceded that the Stellenbosch office had only six out of 41 staff members who were required to deliver adequate services, and the office was too small to serve the 222 people who queued there every day.
The DA consequently circulated a petition in the community.
After collecting hundreds of signatures from Stellenbosch residents who were tired of poor services at Home Affairs, they formally submitted the petition to Parliament last year.
On Tuesday the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs responded to the DA’s petition, indicating that the Absa branch would open on 26 June to relieve pressure on the system.
“The DA will continue to monitor service delivery at Home Affairs closely and ensure the department delivered on its promise to expand capacity and improve quality,” Schreiber said.
“Although a healthy dose of scepticism is always required when it comes to promises from national government, we are pleased to see that pressure conveyed by the community through the DA is yielding fruits.”
