Pretoria - Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba is pushing forward with the introduction of new working hours despite resistance from some offices.
Upon his impromptu visit to the Department of Home Affairs offices in Akasia this week, the minister said he was being more than reasonable and putting people first.
He said they were visiting a number of their offices in Gauteng to observe how they operate, assess the state of leadership and quality of service the public were receiving.
“We have been receiving a lot of complaints from members of the public on various social platforms that some of our offices are not functioning properly. So we came here purposefully to see for our ourselves what is going on so we can then intervene,” he said. “It’s quite clear that the Department of Home Affairs is not functioning at the level that it should be.”
Gigaba said they had been notified that some of their offices were not complying with the new working hours and swift action would be taken.
“I have directed the director-general to take disciplinary measures against those officials who did not comply with the new working hours. We can’t afford to have people thinking of themselves in a situation where we work in service delivery.”
The minister said they were going ahead with ensuring the department worked on Saturdays from 8.30am till 12.30pm regardless of any resistance.
“It’s not about overtime, we have enough officials to spread them across the day and week to deliver optimum service. It’s about putting members of the public first.
“We are happy that the number of those not complying with the new hours has gone down drastically.”
Martin Ntuli was pleased the department would be operating on Saturday as his son had to skip school to get an ID and he had to miss work to accompany him.
“I’m glad they added Saturday for Home Affairs to be open. Had I known, me and my son wouldn’t have had to lose a weekday sorting this out. But I say Akasia home affairs is one of the best in Tshwane, it’s clean, each section is clearly divided and works better than in the CBD,” he said.
Riaan Minnie was fortunate to return when the minister was present, considering the poor service he had received on Monday.
“There was no one behind the counter for most of the day, so hopefully the longer he stays the faster the service will go and hopefully stay that way.”
A man who refused to be named said he was not impressed with the staff as they were only working because the minister was present.
Pretoria News