Pretoria - Residents of Pretoria can now do their shopping and also get their Identification documents, birth certificates and passports all in one trip to their local Menlyn Mall.
This after the Department of Home Affairs officially launched a branch at the mall as well as unveiling 20 additional mobile trucks which were temporarily parked at the mall's parking area earlier today.
In May 2022, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced in his department's speech that in a bid to expand its workforce to help reduce queuing at its offices they had planned to have branches at a number of malls across the country.
The department plans to spend R200 million to open branches in shopping mall's across South Africa, starting with five malls in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Cape Town.
The Department of Home Affairs officially launched a branch at Menlyn Mall as well as unveiling 20 additional mobile trucks which were temporarily parked at the mall's parking area. @HomeAffairsSA #Passport #ID @MenlynSA #Menlyn pic.twitter.com/pnHLCesS1n
Following the opening of Menlyn Mall in Pretoria, the department will head to Cresta Mall in Johannesburg, Southgate Mall also in Johannesburg, The Pavilion in eThekwini and lastly Tygervalley Mall in Cape Town.
Speaking following a walkabout of the branch at Menlyn Mall, Motsoaledi said they decided to bring services to the malls as they had ample space, no congestion and they had shelter from the elements.
"People don't have to queue in the sun and the rain and be bashed by the elements anymore. Mall's also have ample parking space, Menlyn Mall alone has 8 000 parking bays so if it works here we'll move to the other mall's."
And thanks to the partnership with the Pareto Group Limited, which also offered space in South Gate Mall, Motsoaledi said the branches would not have to pay rental for the first five years as the agreement was mutually beneficial because people would also do their shopping there.
The minister said although the branch was officially opened yesterday, the department had already tested its services for four weeks in February, with 900 people having already used the service to date.
The mobile trucks on the other hand would be dispatched to the far rural areas to help speed up services there as they were not using the live capture system as yet and still offering the green ID booklet.
The department is also expecting a further 100 mobile trucks which would hopefully be delivered some time next year.
Ideally Motsoaledi said they wanted to dispatch a cluster of mobile units to schools to avoid having learners missing schools just to get their documents in order.
"We'd like as many people as possible to come here as the services are much better here. These offices also have fibre and it's important as when there is load shedding our staff can not do any work as we depend on towers but that should not be an issue here and some work can be done because of these upgrades we've managed to install."
Pretoria News