Appalling service. Still no renewed permanent residence permit after 10 months.

In October 2018 my 70-year old German mother submitted a permanent residence application to VFS' Cape Town office. She has lived in SA since 1971 and, when her German passport expired recently, she was required to make a new application at VFS for permanent residence. She did this; paid the fee and was told to wait. It is almost a year later and still no PR permit has been granted. She has not been able to travel for this entire time and has missed out on a number of family events in Germany as a result of something as simple as not having a passport. When she visited VFS recently she was told to wait but how much longer? This is absolutely unacceptable.