Wednesday 5 October 2011

Passports 1: Birth Certificates 0

Jack up birth certificate process

July 14 2011 at 09:00am



The Minister of Home Affairs has certainly done a good job when it comes to the issuing of passports.

It generally takes two weeks from application to get your passport. She must be given credit for turning this section of her department around.

Unfortunately, this is where efficiency stops.

I applied for an unabridged birth certificate for my son on January 24. The application process was quick and easy.

I was told, at the Randburg office, that the process would take eight weeks. It is now 24 weeks later and still nothing.

I personally visited the Randburg office four times between March and April – each time the clerk marked my application as urgent on the computer system.

On April 12, I met a senior employee called “Gift” who said he would take up my case with the head office in Pretoria.

He assured me that on April 19, my certificate would be ready for collection. Needless to say, nothing arrived.

On May 5, I called the head office call centre, and was given a reference number and told to call back in a week. I phoned again on June 10 and was given a new reference number. This time a woman named Pam said I could fetch the document in Randburg in three weeks.

I phoned again today, July 8, and the woman on the line said my application was marked as urgent and somebody worked on the file on June 6 according to the system, but nothing had been done. I was told to call back again in three weeks.

Dear Minister, your department’s inefficiency is wasting people’s time. May I remind you that time is money?

You need to pull the birth, marriages and death registration sections of your department in line, just as you have done with passports.



Cliff Jackson

Randburg

http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/jack-up-birth-certificate-process-1.1098784

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