Parliament, Monday, 2 August 2021 – The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs today undertook an inspection of the Eshowe Home Affairs office as part of its oversight visit to KwaZulu-Natal to see first hand the extent of the damages caused by the riots to three of the Home Affairs offices in Eshowe, Impendle and Vulamehlo. The Committee was interested to see the impact on the delivery of civic services as at one stage during the riots 58 Home Affairs offices in KwaZulu-Natal were closed and have since been reopened.
The Committee heard from the Deputy Minister, Mr Njabulo Nzuza that during the looting of shops, Home Affairs offices which were situated in shopping malls were affected the most as staff could not go to work. The riots also affected some services at immigration points such as the airport, border control points and the harbour as some staff could not get to their offices but these stations remained open.The Deputy Minister informed the Committee that whilst the Home Affairs offices were closed the communities were notified to register births and deaths at the nearest Department of Health facilities.
The Eshowe office which caters to more than 350 000 people from Eshowe, Nkandla and Melmoth was rampaged to the extent that the main entrance doors, windows and security gates were broken, computers, scanners and other equipment were stolen bringing services to a halt. This office is a modernised system which delivers most of the services such as Smart Identity Cards. That machine was also stolen. The leader of the delegation and acting chairperson, Mr Mosa Chabane said that the, “committee was impressed with the speed and urgency that the departmental officials took to render their offices fully functional again. The staff was able to source equipment and machines from other offices and today whilst the committee was there, they were setting up the Smart Card machine”. The staff led by the Deputy Minister were involved in the cleaning up of the offices. We are optimistic that the Department is committed to render their civic services fully operational and commend them for their dedication and commitment to the affected communities.
The committee noted that the position of Regional Manager is vacant and urged the Department to work with speed to fill the position. The committee will tomorrow continue with its oversight visit to the Impendle Office in Umgungundlovu Distict
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE LEADER OF THE DELEGATION AND ACTING CHAIRPERSON, MR MOSA CHABANE.
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