In efforts to speed up services and clamp down on a regular offline system, the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Njabulo Nzuza, reiterated the department has plans to digitise its system.
This comes after the department announced that Home Affairs operating hours were extended to Saturdays from September 21 until October 12, for matriculants to apply and collect their IDs in time for their final examinations commencing next month.
Home Affairs offices will be open for five hours, operating between 8am to 1pm.
“Mainly, we are targeting matriculants before examinations commence. We are going to have about 2,800 staff members up until October 12 every Saturday, and 321 offices across our country. Another major issue is collection of IDs; we have about 600,000 uncollected IDs, including 140,000 (IDs) which are first time issuances. We want people to collect and apply for their IDs,” said Nzuza.
Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, he said Home Affairs offices operating on Saturdays was not new as it has been implemented in the past years.
The digitisation Home Affairs was the department’s commitment to speed up services in order to beat the constant long queues and backlog of uncollected and unissued IDs.
Among other plans to revitalise services in the department, Nzuza said a digitised Home Affairs would eventually pilot a remote system, where people apply for their IDs and other documents in the comfort of their homes.
He added that technological infrastructure is currently on the cards, improving the department’s systems.
“We are trying to build a digital Home Affairs. We want people to apply for their documents from home now, it is what we are working hard on for people to use apps and apply for their IDs.
“We are investing a lot in technology to improve the speed in which the level of our offices connect. We are having various projects which deal with various biometrics, which makes it easier to operate our offices. That commitment and investment in infrastructure is there, especially in Information Technology.
“We are now moving to the digital space, which we call the ‘Home Affairs from home’, by digitising the paper records to a digital space. The minister is very passionate about it. We want to deliver services at your doorstep- very exciting announcements are on the way,” said Nzuza.
Media outlets reported that the Minister of Home Affairs, Leon Schreiber, said digitising the department would also secure South Africa’s national security, clamping down on illegal immigration.
Speaking at the RMB Morgan Stanley Investor Conference last week, Schreiber emphasised digitising his office would boost the economy and stabilise ‘law and order’ in the country. The minister’s utterances is amid the validity of controversial pageant queen Miss Universe Nigeria Chiddima Adetshina’s citizenry.
Adetshina’s mother is under fire for allegedly committing fraud and identity theft. The department discovered in July that the mother may have stolen the identity of a South African woman from Tshwane, who entered the national population register in 1982.
Additionally, the Labour Department has recently been raiding restaurants in the province, following discoveries that these eateries were allegedly underpaying workers and hiring illegal immigrants.
“The only way to turn Home Affairs into a department that supercharges economic growth, delivers dignified civic services and secures national security, is by urgently embracing automation and digital transformation,” said Schreiber, according to Polity.
The Star