DURBAN - Members of the Home Affairs portfolio committee are impressed with how the Home Affairs offices damaged during the riots are now open for business
The national committee members visited KwaZulu-Natal this week to assess the extent of the damage and the recovery process that had been put in place.
Several Home Affairs offices, especially those located in shopping centres, were damaged during the looting and destruction campaign last month.
The members visited damaged offices in the Eshowe and Impendle areas, among others. They were interested in seeing the impact of the riots as at one point all the department’s offices were closed.
The committee said in a statement that the Eshowe offices, which cater for close to 350 000 people from Nkandla and Melmoth, were damaged to the extent that the main entrance door windows and security gates had been broken.
“Computers, scanners and other equipment were stolen, bringing service to a halt. This office is modernised and brings services such as smart ID cards,” it said in a statement.
Committee chairperson Mosa Chabane said: “The committee was impressed with the speed and urgency that the department officials took to render their offices fully functional again.”
Chabane told The Mercury they had engaged with community members who had come to the offices for services and had complained about the turnaround time.
He said the delays at these offices, they were informed, were due to the damage and theft of the tools of trade.
He also touched on the generally long queues at Home Affairs offices, saying they were monitoring the department’s roll-out of IT programmes meant to address this and would track the improvement in the situation.
THE MERCURY