Scammers taking money to move people up the queues at Umgeni Road Home Affairs will be bust.
Manager Mbongeni Magagula said on Friday he was shocked that individuals were taking money from people and falsely claiming they would help them jump the queues.
A pensioner who asked not to be named admitted she had paid three men to move up her up the queue, but the men had taken her money and vanished.
She said as she arrived and parked her car, three men approached and offered to help her park. They followed her to the back of the long queue and offered to give her space at the front of the line if she paid them R300. She said she was reluctant, and they lowered the price to R150 – which she then paid.
The men then disappeared.
“The security guard was watching and signalling me not to pay the men, but I was desperate. The queue was long and I have a sore knee,” the woman said.
She later asked the security guards why they were allowing these men on the premises if they knew what they were up to. She said the guard told her they were not able “guard everywhere at the same time; I was stationed here at the time you were communicating with the guys”.
Two security guards on duty acknowledged they were aware of the practice: “We have caught a few guys, but we can’t detect if someone is here to really do their ID or to run a scam because we also have to monitor traffic coming in and out.”
A guard directed the Independent on Saturday to the office manager, who was monitoring the queue himself.
Magagula acknowledged that the practice had been going on for a while and that it happened at all home affairs offices. However, he said that since he joined the Umgeni office in March last year, he had chased away the people who stood outside home affairs with the intent to scam people.
“I haven’t seen these people in more than six months,” he said.
He said the department policy was to prioritise the elderly, people with disabilities and heavily pregnant women in queues.
“If my staff refuses to do this, a client has the right to come and report to my office.”
He said he had a meeting with the home affairs staff including the contracted security company informing them of his zero tolerance for the practice.
He said he had reported the matter to the provincial SAPS, but “no intervention had been made as yet”.
The KZN SAPS Media Centre said no one was available to comment last night.
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Source: IOL
