An order for 33 mobile Home Affairs offices was completed this month which will benefit rural areas by bringing services closer to the people.
KwaZulu-Natal Home Affairs provincial manager Cyril Mncwabe said the department’s core responsibility was to ensure that every South African citizen in the province has access to their services
Mncwabe said the department was aware that its footprint and presence in some of the far-flung and remote areas of the province needed to be improved.
“We see these Hino-based mobile offices as an effective solution to serving citizens who previously had great difficulty getting to Home Affairs offices in the cities,” he said.
A group of KZN Home Affairs officials involved in the project visited the Hino assembly plant in Prospecton, near Durban, in December for a progress report and to tour the truck assembly plant.
“There was a high level of excitement in our group when we visited the Hino plant and saw the trucks being assembled and look forward to putting them into the field as soon as possible,” said Mncwabe.
Hino SA’s Tender and Fleet Sales manager Mengas Mokoena said: “The Hino 300’s low average fuel consumption of approximately 15–18 litres/100km and its record for reliability and durability were significant factors in the decision by Home Affairs to buy our made-in-KZN Hino 300 trucks for their mobile offices.”
The company said that the last units were shipped in mid-February.
Describing the mobile offices, the company said they have unique bodies built by SA Van Conversions/Bubhezi and mounted on Hino 300 816 chassis-cabs.
“The fully equipped mobile offices will service many of KZN’s most remote rural areas. The bodies are mounted on Hino 300 816 chassis-cabs which are powered by a 4-litre turbo-diesel engine driving the rear wheels through a six-speed automatic transmission,” it said
According to the company, the office bodies were constructed by SA Van Conversions/Bubhezi, located in Pinetown.
The Mercury