Annelize Fourie from Parkrand writes,
Home Affairs is not making it very easy for citizens to apply for the new Smart ID Card that replaces the green barcoded ID book.
They expect the public to endure hours of long queues in the hot blazing sun. These queues form very early in the morning.
Their only registration on their website isn’t helpful either for those like myself who don’t do internet banking or who owns a credit card. If you are fortunate enough to register online you still need to go in-person to a Home Affairs office for photos, fingerprints, and signature which cannot be done online.
Another problem at their office regarding the long queues, especially on the inside, are not having enough staff members to accommodate everyone who visits their office.
Home Affairs has no mercy or any humanity for people with health problems, skin conditions that cannot tolerate the sun, elderly people with disabilities who cannot stand too long and those who do not have access to online registration.
To contact them isn’t helpful either. Their phones lines never work or keep ringing. Why must the public accept this kind of service from our government departments?
Why can’t Home Affairs go that extra mile for those in a difficult position to allow them to make bookings at their offices to help those without proper resources like the unemployed, unhealthy people and the elderly?
Every citizen has to apply for the Smart ID Card. At least make it more accessible to do so.
