Home Affairs commends voters

THE Department of Home Affairs has commended the people of Zululand for making use of its extended office hours, saying this contributed immensely to the turnout in the national general elections held last Wednesday.

The department’s Empangeni Office Manager, Vusi Mjadu said he had no doubt that the success of the elections could be attributed to the positive response by voters who came to collect and apply for their identity documents.

‘We are grateful to the department for creating such a window period for our communities. We are equally grateful that our people grabbed this opportunity with both hands.

‘Since we started the extended office hours, all our offices in Zululand were crowded with people from all walks of life, who came for the collection of identity documents.

‘In Empangeni Office alone on 6 May we had 154 ID collections with eight new applications for temporary IDs.
‘On 7 May we had 201 ID collections with 12 new applications for temporary IDs.

‘On election day, the response was overwhelming. We had about 465 ID collections with more than 30 new applications for temporary IDs. Among those collecting their IDs were young people, who could have been first time voters.

‘All in all the extended working hours yielded positive results for people who wanted to exercise their democratic right to vote,’ he said.

Mjadu added that other services such as registration of birth certificates, death certificates, passports, work permits were also offered, even on election day.

Richards Bay Home Affairs also reported residents making good use of the extended hours of operation.

‘We had a total of 467 people collecting identity documents: 210 on Monday, 164 on Tuesday and 93 on Wednesday,’ said acting office manager Dauw Fourie.

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