According to the Department of Home Affairs, the minister's intervention is geared to allow her to hear farm-workers' first-hand experiences on challenges they face in accessing Home Affairs services.
"As part of the proceedings, the minister will hand over 60 IDs (identity documents) to the community and roll-out a mass registration of birth certificates, IDs, passports and other Home Affairs services," said the department in a statement Monday.
The minister will then hold an Imbizo Forum, soliciting the communities' views in relation to improving the quality of service delivery rendered by the department and government in general.
Earlier this month, the department introduced a service through which citizens can check the progress on their IDs and passport applications via SMS (short message service).
This could be done by sending an SMS with the letters ID, a space, then ID number to 32551.
This is part of the e-government systems put in place to ensure effective service delivery in the department.
The department has also introduced earlier this month a new electronic system that would help managers in the department to track the application process of IDs.
The new ID Track and Trace system will allow managers to speed up the process of issuing IDs to applicants.
The system allows departmental managers to trace and if necessary speed up the progress of an application for an ID document from the moment it is lodged through every stage of the process until it is delivered to the applicant.
The system was developed jointly by the department's Citizen Services Branch and external Information Technology experts.
It has electronic features that allow managers to establish which home affairs office was responsible for a particular ID application.
This will then ensure that the managers monitor each stage of the application from the first time it was processed to transportation of application documents to the headquarters.
The system would help establish incidents of corruption and negligence in the processing IDs.
It would also help improve turn-around time for the finalization of applications and delivery of IDs identity, permission for the ID to be printed, printing, return to the issuing office, and finally the point where the ID is handed to the applicant.
A similar system allowing managers to follow applications for passports has been operating successfully within the department for some time.
The ID Track and Trace system will operate fully over several months to allow managers to monitor the flow of up to 150 000 applications daily.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Edwin Tshivhidzo
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 28.05.2007
