Yowzit – Home Affairs Before and After

Are you planning to visit Home Affairs any time soon, but quiver at your knees at the very thought and believe

you will require an entire day’s leave to get the necessary admin done?

Granted, there are Home Affairs Offices throughout South Africa that leave a lot to be desired, but again there are other t Home Affairs offices that have gone through a transformation and remarkable transition, offering the type of service so many South Africans have been longing for and deserve.

We all need to visit the Home Affairs Office from time to time for a variety of reasons. Whether we need to register the birth of a baby, require a change of name through marriage, or renew or apply for a passport. Suffice to say Home Affairs will always play a major role for millions of South Africans together with foreign citizens applying for a whole range of essential documentation.

We have given Home Affairs a bad name but did you know that there are offices that have gone through a fantastic transformation and are able to offer outstanding and excellent service to thousands of South Africans that pass through their doors?

The Home Affairs office in Edenvale until quite recently was a dismal, gloomy place where mothers with babies and children (obviously with no-one to take care of the little ones at home), often travelling great distances, had absolutely no-where to sit. There was no place to queue; furthermore old people could not even rest for a couple of minutes as the area was filthy and poorly run and had no chairs whatsoever?

The NEW Home Affairs Office in Edenvale is a pleasant, well-run and clean place to obtain all necessary documentation – perhaps other Home Affairs Offices can take this as an example?

The South African Post Office Teaches One Patience

Suffice to say, making use of the Post Office in South Africa is a place that teaches an individual great

patience.

Whether you are posting a letter and require a single postage stamp or are sending a whole host of parcels, this is one place that you have to have untold patience and plenty of time because a quick trip to the post office no matter where in South Africa, can become an adventure all on its own and a lengthy process.

This is the place you can have an hour-long chat #haveyoursay and become friends with an entire range of people from all walks of life – it is also a place where you can stand and eat your breakfast or lunch and take your time – you can even knit a jersey in one single session as the staff will never hurry it up and make your life any easier by insisting you be next.

As a matter of fact – this is the very place where you can stand in a line for an hour, only to discover the queue you have been standing in so patiently for so long is not the correct one at all!

Alternatively, you can stand in that long, long line and as soon as you are next, the cashier closes his or her till to go on tea, lunch, dinner, breakfast or some other important meal.

But to be fair – the post office is also the place where you can renew your car licence and forgo the long queues at the licensing department.

We all need to learn to toi-toi at the post office – thankfully the advent of the email has made standing at the post office something we only need to do from time to time.

The South African Post Offices is a place where one has to practice extreme patience, so if you are in a hurry avoid this Government Department at all costs.