Home affairs deputy minister Njabulo Nzuza got a glimpse of what ordinary people go through on a daily basis at home affairs offices in East London on Wednesday. A security guard simply walked away from him, saying she was busy when the politician wanted to inquire about her attitude towards people.
The rollout of the department of home affairs' new online branch appointment booking system (BABS) has expanded to a number of towns across the province, including East London and Mdantsane. Launched in July, the booking system lets applicants applying for smart ID cards and passports reserve hourly slots through the home affairs website in an effort to fight long queues and corruption.
The Eastern Cape's government morgues have 346 unidentified and unclaimed bodies, some of which are believed to have been homeless people who died on the streets.
“I cry every day when I look at my child because I’m reminded that we are treated like foreigners in this country.” This is what a young East London mother feels her life has been reduced to as her five-year long battle to get a “correct” identity document from home affairs persists. Trouble brewed when a heavily pregnant Zandiswa Peko, 31, lost her ID in an inferno in 2017 in Duncan Village.