Great news for ID applications in South Africa

 ·26 Sep 2024

The Department of Home Affairs says that it has completely cleared the backlog of ID applications—within the space of one month.

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said that the backlog started to accumulate in November 2023 following a change in IT service providers.

“The changeover created a bottleneck in multiple areas in the production value chain, from the office of application to application authentication to printing and to the final issuing of the ID. As a result, nearly a quarter of a million applications became ‘stuck’ in a growing backlog,” the minister said.

By 21 August, the backlog hit 247,500 ID applications waiting to be processed.

Schreiber said that the department then started enhancing its operations and focused on clearing backlogs, which it managed to clear in a month.

“The number is (now) zero, with the backlog completely eradicated,” he said.

The minister said that clearing the backlog in such a short time is proof that the department can tackle and overcome the various other challenges that have kept Home Affairs dragging over the years.

He added that it also signifies the department’s commitment to turning Home Affairs into a “powerful economic enabler”, as the individuals affected by the backlog can now seek employment, open accounts, and gain access to social grants.

The department is currently working to clear the visa backlog, which Schreiber hopes to achieve by the end of the year.

The minister has made it his goal to fully transform Home Affairs into a technology-led and digital-first department where South Africans won’t have to step foot into a physical branch to access various services—much like interactions with the South African Revenue Service (SARS).

“Our apex priority is the wholesale digital transformation of Home Affairs to create a new system where South Africans should be able to submit ID and other applications from the comfort of their own home through a digital platform, followed by the delivery of these documents to their doorstep.

“We call this vision ‘Home Affairs @ home’, and we are committed to realising it with the same systematic approach that enabled us to clear the ID backlog,” the minister said.

To further support our communities, the Department of Home Affairs has also extended our office hours on every Saturday until 12 October to enable clients to collect their IDs and other civic documentation.

Following the clearance of the backlog, Home Affairs urged South Africans who have applied for IDs and have now received SMS notifications to collect the critical documents.


Read: All the bank branches where South Africans can get a Smart ID and passport – with more on the way

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