Protest over poor service at Khayelitsha Home Affairs

About 100 people braved the cold and rain on Tuesday to march to the Khayelitsha Home Affairs office to complain about poor service. Photo: Mary-Anne Gontsana

About 100 people marched in the rain to Khayelitsha Home Affairs on Tuesday, protesting over poor service at the branch. Long queues, long waiting periods for IDs and birth certificates, and unprofessional service from staff were among their grievances.

Escorted by police and law enforcement, marchers sang and waved black flags and placards with “We demand good quality service” and “Ngaphandle kwesazisi akhobomi (Without identity there is no life)”.

Lumkile Sizila, of civil society organisation #UniteBehind, which convened the march because of the high number of complaints they’d received, said, “Before deciding to march, we had reached out to the Khayelitsha Home Affairs manager through calls and emails, trying to set up a meeting to discuss these issues, and instead, we were told to take our complaints and issues to the ward councillor or the Khayelitsha Development Forum.”

Sizila said complaints included those of a woman whose ID said she was male, a man who applied for an ID in 2019 and had still not received it, and a man who applied for an ID but received a birth certificate.

Nokuphumla Ndita said she had applied for an ID for her 74-year-old sister in June 2022 and still had not received it.

“When I come here to enquire, I am told that the Khayelitsha branch is still waiting for feedback from the Pretoria branch. One of the staff members even told me at one point that if push comes to shove, I must take my sister back to the rural areas and she must apply for an ID on that side.

“My sister can’t do anything. She can’t even apply for a social grant because of no ID. She lives in a shack because she cannot even apply for housing,” said Ndita.

Siphokazi Maqhiza, who also joined the march, said the Home Affairs online system was not an option for many people, especially elderly people who didn’t even have a mobile phone.

“They need to make the physical process of applying easy and manageable, instead of telling people to do things online,” said Mqhiza.

Khayelitsha Home Affairs district manager Bongiwe Sakawuli accepted the memorandum as the branch manager was unavailable.

“I urge that we organise a community meeting,” she said.

Home Affairs was given 14 days to respond.

Questions sent by GroundUp to Home Affairs had not been answered at the time of publication.

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