Level 3: Home Affairs suspend marriage, ID application services

During a media briefing outlining some of the finer details of the latest round of Disaster Management Act regulations put in place by President Cyril Ramaphosa, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced that certain services usually offered by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) will be suspended during alert level 3. 

Home Affairs suspend certain services  

Motsoaledi said that given the concerns around social distancing and containing the spread of COVID-19, Home Affairs have been left with no choice but to suspend certain services, including the following: 

• Applications for smart IDs, except for matriculants. 
• Applications for passports, except for people who fall in the categories permitted to travel in the amended disaster management act regulations. 
• Marriage services. 

The suspension of marriage services, Motsoaledi admitted, “will be difficult on people”, but asked that the public – and especially those trying to get hitched – to “please bare with the department because we are trying to save lives”. 

‘ID customers must await SMS notification’ – Motsoaledi  

Motsoaledi said that those who are waiting on ID cards to be delivered should wait for SMS notification before venturing to a Home Affairs office. He said that the number of people congregating at Home Affairs offices is worrying given the need to practice safe social distancing, and conceded that staff are overwhelmed by the volume of customers turning up on a daily basis. 

“For collection of IDs, please don’t come to Home Affairs unless you are specifically invited by an SMS,” he said. “We are trying our best to reduce the numbers but we have also decided to change some of the modalities in which Home Affairs services are provided.”

Proposal for hospitals to register birth, death certificates lodged

He went on to say that proposals have been submitted to government requesting a shift in the procedure that governs where and how birth and death certificates are registered. 

“We are proposing that all birth and death be registered at the health facilities where they took place. You are aware that people do die in hospitals and relatives and funeral parlours come to Home Affairs to collect the death certificate.”

In order to curb the volume of people visiting the offices, he suggested that offices situated at hospitals become responsible for handling requests for such documents. 

“We are asking that the certificate be collected at the hospital where the death took place. Not all hospitals have got home affairs offices unfortunately, but a number do where you can register a birth and a death.”