Home Affairs is set to roll-out 57 mobile office units at the end of next month, to provide services to people in remote areas of the country.
Home Affairs minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula recently launched the first 10 in King Williams Town.
Nkosana Sibuyi, chief director of the department`s communications services, says the units are fully equipped to provide Home Affairs services to clients in remote areas, and to areas insufficiently covered by existing fixed offices.
"They will be located mostly in rural areas, taking into account the population dynamics of the areas in accordance with the Urban Renewal and Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme nodal points," Sibuyi says.
He adds that the units will be used to provide the full range of Home Affairs civic services, including birth, marriage and death registration and ID and passport applications, among others. This will also include the issuing of various certificates and documents on the spot.
"These mobile units will function as fully-operational offices with the necessary client service interface, filing and storage facilities, office furniture and equipment, as well as the necessary IT equipment, with the capacity of accessing all areas of SA," Sibuyi explains.
The mobile offices comprise thin-client technology connections, via a VSAT dish mounted on the roof of the unit, and fingerprint biometrics logins to access departmental applications.
"The remaining mobiles will probably be seven-ton trucks that will accommodate built-in ablution facilities. In the first 10 mobiles rolled out, such facilities are not built in, but towed by the mobile units," Sibuyi says.
Share