Management at certain Home Affairs offices `terrible`: Malusi Gigaba

Source: 567 Cape Talk, 24/04/2018

Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has admitted that the quality of
management in certain Home Affairs offices is `terrible`.
He`s outlined some of the challenges the department will be dealing
with head on to ensure that they are delivering the best possible
services.
On Monday the department launched its “war on queues” campaign aimed at
tackling the issue of long turn-over times.
Gigaba says many of the problems stem from the ratio of clients to
service centres.
We provide services to 56 million South Africans and millions of
immigrants but we have 411 offices across the country.
â€` Malusi Gigaba, Minister of Home Affairs
Gigaba adds that technical restraints also put offices under extra
pressure.
Secondly, some of the difficulties emanate from the fact that some of
the offices cannot be converted into live capture offices because they
lack data network.
â€` Malusi Gigaba, Minister of Home Affairs
The department has prepared an assessment report on how best they are
going to manage queues, but Gigaba also admits that management in some
offices is poor.
The third problem highlighted is that some of the areas we found to be
lacking good quality leadership on the ground. The quality of
management is some of our offices is quite terrible and we need to pay
attention to it.
â€` Malusi Gigaba, Minister of Home Affairs
The fourth problem is that in all Home Affairs office we have an
unreliable network. You arrive at Home affairs offices and you are told
that the system is offline. That is not because of Home Affairs or
because the staff doesn`t want to work, but if the system is offline
there is nothing they can do.
â€` Malusi Gigaba, Minister of Home Affairs
We have declared war on queues and it is going to be an ongoing
campaign that we hope to be resolved by the end of this year.
â€` Malusi Gigaba, Minister of Home Affairs
Gigaba says the solution requires the provision of a reliable network
at its offices nationwide.
The department is also looking at expanding the footprint of its
services through the banks.