Times Of Swaziland: YOU CAN NOW GET IDS, OTHERS ON WEEKENDS

YOU CAN NOW GET IDS, OTHERS ON WEEKENDS
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Phumelele Mkhonta on 09/03/2021 10:22:00


MBABANE – The Ministry of Home Affairs has kept its promise!
Three months after promising to open their regional offices on weekends due to
the backlog in enrolment of national identity cards, the said ministry is
finally doing just that. According to a press statement sent by the ministry’s
Principal Secretary, Nhlanhla Nxumalo, yesterday, in response to the seven-
month backlog caused by COVID-19 negative effects on service delivery
countrywide, the ministry had decided that they would open service centres on
Saturdays and Sundays. This activity will begin this coming weekend and will
last for three weeks.
This means it will start on March 13 and end on March 28.
Worth noting is that the enrolment of national identification cards will still
continue on Tuesdays and Thursdays. “All 10 service centres will open on the
following weekends (Saturdays and Sundays) to enrol for both late and current
national identity documents,” said Nxumalo. He  further said the requirements
for national identity document enrolment was an original and certified copy of
the birth certificate and if lost, it would require a police report. “Another
requirement is a E25 receipt for current enrolment and E50 receipt for second ID
enrolment. For payments, emaSwati are advised to use government Revenue Offices
nearest to their service centres, which will also be operational,” said the
PS. Nxumalo said for enquiries, emaSwati were encouraged to contact +268 7606
3938.
In November last year, Nxumalo said they were planning on opening on weekends to
try deal with the seven months backlog of IDs. The Ministry of Home Affairs
service centres were closed during the emergence of COVID-19 last year from
March to October. Nxumalo highlighted that they were still going to consider the
ministry’s financial standing and human resource to be able to start working
on weekends. He also said it was imperative to understand that, generally, home
affairs services were always in demand worldwide. “Operations at the ministry,
just like in all sectors of the economy, were impeded by the outbreak of
COVID-19 in March (last year).  Civil servants at working stations were reduced
by 50 per cent. “In response to this, we suspended issuance of IDs as the
enrolment process involves high risk personal contact with clients. Passports
were only issued at the head office for those who needed to travel on essential
errands,” said Nxumalo at the time. He said worth noting was that the
registration of births, deaths and marriage certificates was never suspended.
“The suspension of some of the services created a backlog of IDs and other
official documents of about seven months,” said Nxumalo. About two weeks ago,
it was reported that some people were spending nights at the District
Commissioner’s Office with the hope to be first in line to get their identity
documents.