The Department of Home Affairs is rolling out an electronic queue system at its branches, to improve service delivery, which it says has been a problem in SA for some time.
Home affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the department has made extensive moves to improve and enhance operational efficiencies and made significant progress towards home affairs front offices working properly. She noted the department is also piloting an electronic queue management system.
“This will function by providing ticket numbers and directing clients to relevant counters for service. It also informs clients of approximate waiting times while reducing congestion in public areas,” she explained.
During her department's budget vote speech last week, she said the electronic queue management system is already being piloted at its Khayelitsha branch. “The average waiting time in Khayelitsha regional office, where the system is currently being piloted, has been reduced from 45 minutes to between 25 and 30 minutes.”
She said the system would also assist the department by feeding back information such as how long people waited in queues and how many people visited each branch.
Good move
The Democratic Alliance shadow minister for the home affairs department, Juanita Terblanche, says if the department does indeed roll out this system and spread it across other offices as quickly as possible, it will really help citizens and improve service delivery.
security officers take bribes from the public just so they could skip the queue.
“At the moment, there are many problems at the department's offices that urgently need to be addressed.” People spend nights at the offices to avoid long queues, which is really frustrating for them as they are not getting the service they deserve, she adds.
Gaetano Gabellone, a director at Nemo-Q, which provides electronic queue management systems, commends the department for the move as it will improve the level of service. He says the objective of any queue management system is to achieve a better quality of service to customers.
Gabellone says these systems eliminate the need to stand in line while waiting. “It also helps to provide comfort as well as fairness to customers, by allowing them to maintain their position in the queue while they are seated comfortably or engaged in constructive activity.”
Corruption clampdown
In a bid to root out corrupt officials in home affairs, the minister says the department is rolling out a new biometric log-on system this year, in branches across the country. “The system will ensure that a clear paper-trail is created by all officials that accessed the department's computers in processing IDs, passports and the application of birth registration forms.”
A new anti-corruption unit within the department, led by the deputy director-general, is being set up and Dlamini-Zuma pointed out that positions were already being advertised for the unit.
The department will also offer programmes through a learning centre to change the ethos of the staff, and to equip them with skills, as many come straight out of school with little work experience, the minister promised.
"Sometimes, what we consider as rudeness is just a person who is out of their depth and are being defensive," said Dlamini-Zuma.
In the context of 2010 being designated as the year of action by president Zuma in his state of the nation address, she said: “We will redouble our efforts to speed up and improve the quality of service delivery.”
Dlamini-Zuma added she is confident that with the support of society at large, they will indeed succeed in building a transformed home affairs department.
Share