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Calls on Home Affairs to open all offices on Saturdays

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Dear MyPE

The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, to open Home Affairs offices on Saturdays to address the plight of the youth in South Africa.

Home Affairs proudly announced that 25 offices around South Africa will be open on Youth Day to allow Matrics to apply for identity (ID) documents. This is simply not good enough.

With Home Affairs currently working on one-third staff complement that means that two-thirds of staff have been at home for the past three months on full pay while Matrics have been unable to apply for ID documents.

If Home Affairs can open some offices on Youth Day to process ID applications there is no reason they cannot open all offices once a week for urgent ID applications – every office on every Saturday.

In response to a DA appeal last week to address the plight of Matrics without IDs, Home Affairs indicated they would roll out mobile units from high school to high school. However, with only 60% of these units operational they would need to register over 60 ID applications per unit per day every day until the end of the year – more than double the normal daily average at Home Affairs offices throughout South Africa. It is highly unlikely this registration rate will be achieved.

Without urgent and meaningful intervention Matrics will sit at the end of a year that is even more stressful than normal without an ID document to be able to receive their results.

The broader challenge that remains is that for every matriculant there are two young people who never made it to Matric and desperately need to find work or apply for social assistance, both of which require an ID document. Many of these have not even been able to get a birth certificate through no fault of their own and remain stateless in the land of their birth.

It has required the intervention of the Courts to bring sensible direction time after time, with the Grahamstown High Court recently ruling that undocumented learners should be admitted to school. In their answering affidavit the Department of Basic Education claimed during the court hearing there were a staggering 880 968 undocumented children enrolled in schools who are South African citizens. By now there will be many more.

Instead of a publicity stunt on Youth Day a proper plan should be tabled by Home Affairs to address these issues, with the assistance of Treasury – what can be a more important issue to address than a South African child who cannot carry on with their lives due to a lack of basic documentation? No access to healthcare, no access to social assistance, banished to joblessness.

The DA will continue to fight for young people who are treated like their lives don’t matter in the country of their birth.

Regards

Adrian Roos MP
DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Home Affairs

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