Blunder sees Home Affairs bypass new policy, do good

THE Ministry of Home Affairs was forced to temporarily override its own policies on Wednesday after it ran out of Emergency Travel Certificates (ETCs), and instead issued passports to irate travellers who wouldn’t ordinarily have received them.

Earlier this year, the Ministry announced that it would not accept passport applications from anyone travelling within 30 to 60 days of the applications, and that ‘one-time travellers within the SADC region’ would have to make do with an emergency travel certificate instead.But it seems that the controversial measure was not accompanied by the necessary planning for a spiked demand in ETCs, and the Ministry was left with mud on its face when it ran out of the travel documents on Tuesday, forcing it to issue passports to some of these ‘one-time’ travellers.According to Samuel /Goagoseb, Permanent Secretary at Home Affairs, the delay was the fault of TransNamib, which failed to deliver the certificates on time.’It was an unfortunate situation. Whenever you are moving from one system to another, hiccups are bound to happen. But the documents have now been delivered, and we are keeping the office open until 19h00 today to issue ETCs to those who had applied,’ he told The Namibian on Wednesday.But for some travellers, whose trips were delayed by not having their documents issued on time, and who had already paid for accommodation or lost out on business for which they had to travel, the lack of ETCs was more than just an ‘unfortunate situation’.One traveller who was supposed to leave for South Africa on Tuesday, and had already paid for accommodation for him and his family, was highly unimpressed.’The person responsible for procurement should be held accountable for this. Who’s going to pay us back for the payments we’ve already made?’ he asked.This traveller was lucky, however. By 12h00 on Wednesday, the Ministry was able to issue him with a passport instead.’At least for me, I just had to pay the extra N$40 to have a passport processed, and now I’m sorted for five years, and don’t have to go through this process again. So for me it worked out okay, but there are many others who were here yesterday (Tuesday), who are still waiting.’The ETC costs N$120, while a passport costs N$160.Another traveller, who was supposed to leave for South Africa at 04h00 on Wednesday, was also able to get a passport because she had applied last week already, and had also applied for the ETC on Tuesday because of the two-month period it usually takes to get a passport. By 11h00, she was still waiting for her refund on the ETC she had paid for.’I saw yesterday that through this process, printing of passports doesn’t take more than 10 minutes. It’s just the approval process that maybe takes long, but the printing was done in 10 minutes.’She added that Home Affairs had failed to tell applicants on Tuesday morning that they had run out of the documents when they applied, and only told them when they were meant to collect their ETCs at 16h00 that afternoon.’There was one man here yesterday who was supposed to be in Jo’burg by 10h00 today for business, and others who had paid for bus and plane tickets for today. But they are still waiting.’But Goagoseb says the onus also lies on travellers to plan better in advance.’There is also a lack of planning on the travellers’ side, because they apply at very short notice, sometimes on the day that they are leaving. For example, on holidays like this, there is a sudden influx for ETCs,’ for which the Ministry is unable to plan for.But the word ‘Emergency’ in ETC bears weight in this regard, and hence, planning for peak demand should also be taken into account.Asked whether it wouldn’t be more convenient for the Ministry and citizens to issue passports valid for five years at a cost of N$160, instead of having to pay N$120 for an ETC every time people travelled, Goagoseb agreed, but said this benefit would only come into play in the long term, once the new electronic passport system is in place.It is expected that the new system, which will have increased security features such as a chip including biometric data, will be introduced in November, though many elements remain to be put in place.’The ETC travel requirement is still in place to relieve pressure on passports. For regular travellers, we will still issue passports, but one-time travellers must apply for an ETC,’ Goagoseb said.nangula@namibian.com.na- See also SMS praise for Home Affairs on page 21