05 Aug 2018

Government has resolved to increase manpower and fleet at National and Civil Registration offices across the country to improve service delivery

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Matsitama on Thursday, Member of Parliament for Shashe West, Mr Fidelis Molao said there had been an influx at Omang offices resulting in complaints from the public regarding delays in renewing Omang cards.

Mr Molao said Omang cards could be renewed six months before expiry and doing so helped reduce congestion and the number of complaints at Omang offices.

He said the upgraded system at Omang offices required proper recording of dates of birth by doing away with recording xx/xx where the date of birth was not known.

Mr Molao said government had decided that those who did not know their birthdays, use January 1 but where relatives could provide information using examples of events that happened in year the applicant was born, such information could also be used to give the person a birth date.

Meanwhile, residents complained that there were sometimes errors in Omang cards yet the applicant provided correct information.

On other issues, a resident, Mr Tubego Mosweu complained that it took long for murder cases to be resolved.

He said it was disheartening that sometimes the bereaved family never got update from the law enforcement officers to which Mr Molao said murder cases by nature took a long time to resolve, to allow for a full investigation.

He said it was important to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused indeed committed the crime because the legal penalty for murder was capital punishment which was irreversible. Ends