Residents in rural areas such as Otjimbingwe and Omatjete in the Erongo Region still find it difficult to acquire identity documents due to a shortage of equipment.
These residents are forced to travel long distances from the villages to Swakopmund and Otjiwarongo in order to have their documents done.
Head of the Department of Civil Registration in the Erongo Regional Home Affairs and Immigration office, Lydia Kasera explained how the removal of the ID printing machine at the Omaruru sub-office has created a burden in these areas, after it was sent to a new office in Rosh Pinah.
“Although our officials try every now and then to go into these communities to assist them, we are not able to assist all of them at the same time. There is also an urgent need for children 0-5 years who are mostly born in Usakos, which is the closest town, but are not registered due to various reasons. We are pleading with the ministry to give us an additional printing machine at Omaruru to cut these residents’ journeys and cater for their needs,” she noted.
Kasera was briefing the Minister of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security Albert Kawana and his delegation during a visit at the regional office on Thursday.
She said that the region is also among others faced with a large number of uncollected IDs which stand at 8 837.
She however expressed satisfaction in the fact that applicants no longer have to wait for months for IDs and passports as it was in the past, because the office now has a National Passport System which captures most of the applicants’ information.
Kawana noted that the ministry is aware of the different challenges faced by the different offices and is hard at work to address and improve service delivery in all parts of the region.
“In the past, citizens used to sleep in queues in order to acquire national documents, however that is not the case anymore and now the ministry prides itself in fast service delivery which puts us among some of the best in the world,” he said.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
