A senior home affairs delegation has been sent to Pinetown to investigate the circumstances at its regional offices that apparently led a 22-year-old to commit suicide last week. Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Sunday she would "leave no stone unturned" to find the official whose lack of co-operation allegedly led Douglas Skhumbuso Mhlongo to take his own life.
Mhlongo's suicide note to his family said that he killed himself in despair after a home affairs official tore up his ID application papers. He had needed an ID to take up a job. The Sunday Tribune reported that Dlamini-Zuma cried on hearing about Mhlongo and hinted that the official might have been angling for a bribe.Mhlongo was the second KZN person to commit suicide after having problems getting an ID document.
In June 2007, a KwaMashu woman, Bongekile Mkhize, 24, committed suicide after her hopes of enrolling as a nurse were thwarted. Repeated attempts to get her ID document had failed, apparently because she had supplied an incomplete home address. Other dissatisfied clients have adopted various methods to get the attention of home affairs officials.
In December 2005, after a two-year wait for his ID, Kabelo Thibedi, 21, snapped and held a Johannesburg home affairs official hostage for over five hours with a toy gun, demanding the document.In March 2008, Howick businessman Francois Davel was thrown out of a Pietermaritzburg home affairs office for conducting an impromptu survey of the service while waiting in a queue. Davel decried the quality of service after an extensive wait for his son's ID.
Dlamini-Zuma on Sunday announced a hotline number where people could complaint. The hotline number is 080 020 4476. Complaints can also be registered at 080 060 1190.
Source: IoL
No comments:
Post a Comment