This led to a situation where out of the Civic Branch’s 5 734 employees, 4 502 staff were affected and could not come to work at some time or another.
Unfortunately, the situation of not observing protocols, especially social distancing, got worse, and it did so at the time when the speed of the spread of the new variant of COVID-19 was accelerating much faster than it did in the first phase. We thought the situation will improve with time as people got used to health protocols. When office managers and Inspectorate officers enforce this, people follow these rules momentarily and go back to their old ways the minute officials turn their back on them. Despite the fact that there are markings outside most buildings to indicate where people should stand to observe social distancing, people were simply ignoring these markings. It became clear that inside our offices, some form of protocols was adhered to but outside the offices it was a nightmare. They specifically visited the large offices around the country. Unfortunately, the impact of what we did on 01 October had the effect of taking us back to pre-COVID-19 days where huge crowds gathered at our offices while not observing any of the protocols, especially social distancing.Īt the beginning of December 2020, senior managers of the Department, including the Minister and the Deputy Minister, visited offices in all nine provinces to monitor adherence to COVID-19 protocols and try and normalise the situation. This is when almost all services were reinstated. This was to limit the risk of their infecting each other and the staff because social distancing is difficult when you have a large crowd.Īlso, in terms of the public service rules, we were required to ensure that only one third of the staff are allowed in our offices.Īs the lockdown levels were relaxed, we incrementally reinstated services until 01 October 2020 when we went into lockdown Alert Level 1. Let me go to changes in Home Affairs services.Īt the beginning of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, certain Home Affairs services were suspended in order to reduce the number of people who visited our offices.
in the event of failure to submit a certificate as proof of a negative COVID-19 test, such person will be required to do an antigen test at his or her own cost and if he or she tests positive to COVID-19, he or she will be required to quarantine at his or her own costs.provision of a valid certificate of a negative COVID-19 test obtained not more than 72 hours before the date of travel and.People who are allowed into South Africa are still subject to the prescribed screening procedures and isolation or quarantine rules, as the case may be, which include. Such applications can be sent to the following email address, This email address is being protected from spambots.
proof of accommodation or place of residence.demonstration of exceptional circumstances for the request to enter the Republic.If people do not fall into any of the categories mentioned, but believe their case is worth considering, they can apply to the Minister of Home Affairs seven working days before the date of intended travel for exemption, and must provide The other 14 will be on our website and social media accounts.Īs it was said, the closure will exempt certain, very important, services which will include movement of cargo and commercial goods, emergency medical treatment, movement of diplomats, deportation, people who need to go back to their home countries and allowing South Africans to return and learners who attend school daily in South Africa.Įven during the hard lockdown, we did not stop people who wanted to go home from doing so. The President mentioned six of the busiest ones. A list of these borders is available on our website and our social media accounts. We have closed all 20 land borders which were open during Level 1 of the lockdown. Members of the public listening through various platforms Let me thank Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
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