Staff receive many complaints about the incompetence and inefficiency of Home Affairs: clients wait months and sometimes years for an ID document, often having made several applications. They are told that forms have been lost, were never received, are delayed in Pretoria or that their ID number has been mixed up with someone else’s.

Coordinators contact members of Home Affairs whom they know and write referral letters for their clients, who then receive more efficient service. They make telephone calls on behalf of clients and re-send forms, and in these ways greatly speed up the application process.

Anti Tshabalala, 2008: Intervention after Delay in Issue of Birth Certificate

A 16 year old boy came to the office with his maternal grandmother, having heard about our services from the councillor. He has lost both parents and has an elder brother who is dong Grade 11. He wanted to make an application for a grant but needed a full birth certificate. His father, who has passed away, had applied for the document but it had never arrived. My client did not know what to do because he had no money to travel to Home Affairs.

I called Pretoria Home Affairs and spoke to a contact, Zandile, who asked for the client’s ID number. She checked and told me that no documents had been sent from Pinetown Home Affairs but that she would open a file so that the matter could be investigated.

She asked for the client’s contact number and asked me to call again on 20th August. I checked and found that the client’s full birth certificate was at Pinetown Home Affairs. The client told me that he had received the birth certificate and thanked me for my services.

Coordinator Dudu Basi, Aug 2010: Speeding Up Applications

Most problems in Himeville are ID problems. Parents pass away and leave children with no documents like birth certificates. They go to Home Affairs but the local officials don’t have the correct information. I give them referral letters for Home Affairs explaining the law and what they need, and this helps them to get their documents.