This video was recorded by Tanith Molliere who went to visit the Umgeni Road Home Affairs on 4 February 2015 to pick up a copy of her marriage certificate.
The office is a government department and its staff are civil servants. They are meant to serve the public and their salaries are paid by us – tax payers (Just like Zuma’s salary).
The office hours are 08:30 – 16:30. She joined the queue at 14:00. The queue was out the door – sun was beating down and sweltering. She spoke to the folk in the queue (some with the teeniest babies & some elderly) who told her that many of them had been queuing since 08:00 only to be turned away at 10:00 as the office closed due to load shedding between 10:00 and 12:00). They rejoined the queue that afternoon.
The rest in her words: “At around 14:45 (while still in the queue outside which had not moved much) we noticed that the security guard had chained the door closed from the inside. When the public started knocking at the door asking what was going on, the security guard ignored us. Then some people started knocking in earnest and then the security guard (from at least 5m away from the door) motioned that the offices were closed. Bear in mind the office hours are 08:30 to 16:30 and they had already been non-operational for around 2 hours during load shedding, and there had been no announcement made or reason given to those queued outside as to why they were closing early.
“At around 15:00, I and a few other people then made out way to an entrance a little further along which was manned by 2 security guards and demanded to speak to a supervisor. Finally at around 15:30, a staff member (a Ms Z C Dlamini) came out to tell us that the office were closed and that we were to move to the main door (where we had come from) as a manager would be addressing us. I (being very suspicious of the whole thing) was filming her announcement. She was not very impressed and tried to knock my phone out of my hand and then forced the gate to the entrance closed.
“We moved to the main entrance as instructed and waited. Of course no manager arrived, but instead staff members started pouring out of the building to go home. Including Ms Dlamini, who made her way to her car parked near us (this was around 15:45). Two very frustrated gentlemen approached her with questions, and I too approached her (filming the entire time) asking where the manager was that she had advised us would be speaking to us (who never materialised by the way – I stuck around until after 16:00 to be sure).”
