Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 14-01-2019
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs has urged the Department of Home Affairs to consider an outright ban on cell phone usage by front line staff during working hours at all Home Affairs offices.
This comes after numerous complaints from the public about delays at Home Affairs offices.
The committee says a guiding framework on the use of cell phones at front desks must be drafted and implemented across the country to ensure standardisation.
Hlomani Chauke says it’s unacceptable that the public spend excessive amounts of time at Home Affairs offices, while officials spend a disproportionate amount of time busy with their cell phones.
“Officials are primarily employed to offer a service and the complaints point to dereliction of duty by some officials, yet they continue to draw a salary at the end of the month.”
Chauke says the key issue to resolving the long queues at Home Affairs offices is by ensuring that officials are at their desks offering services they are employed to do.
“We are, of course, cognisant that one of the major causes of long queues is the downtime caused by unreliable information and technology software, but professional service at the department must improve.”
Chauke says they are also concerned about cellphone usage at ports of entry across the country, which gives a bad impression to visitors when they arrive in the country.
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