SA Needs Passports because our Home Affairs are HOPELESS!!!

I went to Home Affairs to get a temporary passport. I had to go back 2-3 times (still don't have it), and each time, they had a different excuse. Now the reason I needed a temporary passport in a hurry was I was unexpectedly invited to Dubai. I was supposed to leave on a Sunday and after paying them, was assured it would be ready in time. The trip didn't happen for a few reaqsons, so I went back to Home Affairs on the Tuesday (this is after the Sunday I meant to leave, and I would have picked it up on Friday). Know what they said? Would I mind waiting 20 minutes...it still wasn't ready. On the previous visit they'd said, tersely: '5-10 working days.' This despite assuring me when I applied for it that 5 working days was the ballpark figure.

Suffice it to say I still don't have my passport. Have a look at the brilliant system they have for photocopying your ID for their records. Real state of the art.

clipped from www.africasia.com All South Africans travelling to Britain will need a visa starting from March, the British embassy said Monday, citing lax security on passports issued here. Nearly 420,000 South Africans visited Britain in 2007, making them the fifth largest group of visitors to the country. Currently South Africans are allowed to stay for up to six months without a visa, but embassy spokesman Russ Dixon told AFP the rules were being tightened due to concerns over loose security. "The major issue of concern was the ease with which non-South African nationals could obtain South African passports," he said. South Africans are among the nationalities most refused entry to Britain, and they have also increasingly overstayed visas or begun working illegally, the embassy said in a statement.