{"id":357323,"date":"2019-11-26T15:22:11","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T13:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=357323"},"modified":"2021-07-25T16:25:33","modified_gmt":"2021-07-25T14:25:33","slug":"parliament-wants-home-affairs-to-open-on-saturdays-and-offer-more-services-through-banks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/357323\/parliament-wants-home-affairs-to-open-on-saturdays-and-offer-more-services-through-banks\/","title":{"rendered":"Parliament wants Home Affairs to open on Saturdays and offer more services through banks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs has <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.parliament.gov.za\/press-releases\/holistic-intervention-needed-resolve-long-queues-home-affairs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">suggested<\/a> <\/strong>to the Department of Home Affairs that they must look at a &#8216;holistic approach&#8217; in dealing with long queues.<\/p>\n<p>In a presentation on Tuesday (26 November), director-general Thulani Mavuso says the issue of reducing queues at Home Affairs offices has been made a ministerial priority.<\/p>\n<p>Mavuso says some of the interventions being looked at include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A\u00a0<strong>heat map<\/strong>, showing where offices have the longest queues;<\/li>\n<li>Developing a system to\u00a0<strong>issue tickets<\/strong>\u00a0for overflow clients;<\/li>\n<li>Creating\u00a0<strong>specific counters<\/strong>\u00a0for clients who applied on eHome Affairs;<\/li>\n<li>Developing a\u00a0<strong>smartphone app<\/strong>\u00a0for reissue of passports and ID smart cards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The portfolio committee welcomed the announcements and said that the Department of Home Affairs should also look at other solutions such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The need to utilise technological advances such as an online appointment system that will ensure that clients arrive at the department when they are expected;<\/li>\n<li>The extension of the department\u2019s footprint in banking institutions to lighten the load on departmental offices;<\/li>\n<li>Reengagement with labour unions to resolve the impasse on the opening of the Home Affairs offices on Saturdays, which alleviated weekday pressures on the office.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;The committee has committed to engage the National Treasury on the issue of departmental funding,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The committee agrees with the department that the current footprint is inadequate to service the current population and requires the extension of its services, which will include opening more offices.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It added that training for frontline employees was also underlined as a key area that must be prioritised, as there are areas of concern currently.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are ongoing complaints about the unpleasant attitude of Home Affairs staff, which can be addressed through training, which must be periodic,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/357199\/4-big-changes-coming-to-home-affairs-to-cut-down-queue-time\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">4 big changes coming to Home Affairs to cut down queue time<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs has suggested to the Department of Home Affairs that they must look at a &#8216;holistic approach&#8217; in dealing with long queues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":6853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-357323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357323"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":508616,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357323\/revisions\/508616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}