Nothing quite ruins a weekend like a trip to Home Affairs on a Saturday morning. The panic of never being sure whether you have all the right paperwork, the awkward shuffling as you eke your way towards the counter, the evil glares at the people who skip the queue because they’re more important than anyone else – like I said, that shizz is stressful.

But now, at least when it comes to obtaining your new ID, you can give Home Affairs the middle finger. Rather than face those horrors you may soon be able to pop into your local bank, with this from TimesLive:

This is what the Department of Home Affairs hopes will happen if its pilot “e-channel” – launched recently at Standard Bank and First National Bank in downtown Joburg – works.

The department hopes this will resolve the endless queueing outside its 140 offices around the country – and that it will not have to provide more buildings to improve the services provided by its estimated 10 000 employees.

Whilst the idea had a few critics in the EFF, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Fatima Chohan was optimistic that the plan would be a great success:

“You would see the benefits to us being able to expand our footprint without necessarily having to open offices ourselves,” she said.

She said the work itself would be done by home affairs officials, not by banking officials, and would benefit people who did not have the whole day or morning to wait at home affairs offices…

She said using the banking halls would give the department the opportunity to upgrade and streamline without having to spend too much as would be the case if it had to open new offices.

Hallelujah.

[source:timeslive]