BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE- The Ministry of Home Affairs is on a roll!
Long waits in queues for service delivery is becoming a thing of the past at the said ministry’s service centres- especially the headquarters in Mbabane.
The ministry has been applauded for same-day delivery, especially with regards to travel documents.
Some members of the public noted that instead of a close-to-a-week wait, which was a norm, it now took about a day, or a couple of hours, to have a document produced and delivered.
Worth noting is that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged in March 2020 in the country, the ministry suffered a backlog which saw nationals queuing overnight, and sometimes days, to get service. This was mainly at the service centres, where National Identification Cards and Birth Certificates are mainly distributed.
The Ministry of Home Affairs Communications Officer, Mlandvo Dlamini, said the ministry was targeting on a 24-hour service delivery, when sought for comment.
“The ministry’s main concentration is on improving service delivery. Currently, those seeking assistance at our head office in Mbabane are receiving instant help. This is because all our key systems are located there.
“However, we are also trying to innovate ways to expand the efficient service delivery. It is a process,” said Dlamini.
When asked what boosted their service delivery, Dlamini said improvement on technology and other internal factors contributed positively towards the ministry’s 24-hour service delivery goal.
He said their growing modernised equipment also assisted in the quick production of National Identification Cards and other documents.
A group of nationals who were queued to pick their travel documents at the Ministry of Home Affairs Headquarters said they were pleasantly surprised on how the process had become less tedious.
“Over 10 years ago or so, it would literally take the whole day to finally produce all needed documents to take a picture for a travel document. It would take another week to get the travel document.
“Today, we barely spent two hours assembling my documents and taking a picture. We are now waiting for our travel documents. The whole process barely took a full day,” they said.
They said they were happy with the ministry’s service.
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