Parliament grills public works over home affairs office failures

Department of Home Affairs Picture: Carlos Muchave/ The Citizen The portfolio committee on home affairs recently hit out at the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) after officials acknowledged persistent failures in securing adequate office space for the Department of Home Affairs, yet arrived before the committee without a credible plan to fix the problem. The admission came during a heated engagement with the home affairs leadership from the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, alongside senior DPWI officials. Committee chairperson Mosa Chabane made clear that acknowledgement alone was insufficient.

“It is not enough for the DPWI to simply acknowledge its shortcomings without presenting concrete solutions to ensure the availability of suitable office space,” he said. “While acknowledging a problem is the first step towards resolving it, the reality is that the DPWI is failing the Department of Home Affairs.” Chabane said the committee’s concern deepened when officials conceded that a number of offices did not meet basic legal requirements for the people working in and visiting them. “It is even more concerning that there is an admission that some offices do not comply with occupational health and safety standards,” he said.

He added that the risk posed to members of the public accessing these services could not be ignored. Among the cases that drew the sharpest criticism was the Pietermaritzburg Home Affairs office, where correspondence and procurement processes have reportedly dragged on for 15 years without resolution. Chabane said the committee viewed this not as an isolated failure but as symptomatic of a broader pattern of institutional inertia within the DPWI that had gone unchecked for far too long.