By Kwanele Ntombela
The new home affairs office in The Pavillion Shopping Mall is cashless and only takes card payments. The mall is in the Westville area of Durban and near the township of Chesterville.
“We are very happy that the Department has opened a new, beautiful office like this. However, we expect our community to become familiar with the system and book appointments in order to secure times to visit the office, as we only accept card payments and do not accept cash,” says office manager, Mbali Kheswa.
The office was officially opened by the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motswaledi, in a ribbon cutting ceremony that was also attended by KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube. Motsoaledi says the new facility should alleviate existing problems such as lengthy queues and a lack of parking that is an issue in other home affairs centres.
He says this is in a “concerted efforts to improve access to services for clients”.
Another branch will open in Randburg near Johannesburg.