Home Affairs to close for system upgrade

Published Nov 23, 2015

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Cape Town - The Department of Home Affairs will not be processing applications for IDs and passports at a third of its 400 offices from this Friday until next Wednesday to allow for an upgrade. The upgrade will affect 17 offices in the Western Cape, and 123 throughout the country.

On Sunday Home Affairs Director general Mkuseli Apleni said the upgrade was for the production of new smart ID cards and passports.

Apleni said the department will be increasing the bandwidth to make the system faster and more secure.

“It used to take 54 days to get an ID book. Now with the new smart-ID card it takes less than 10 days,” Apleni said.

Home Affairs spokesperson Thabo Mokgola said all affected offices will still be offering their usual services, except for the the processing of applications for IDs and passports.

“This is to allow the department to add 38 offices to those equipped with a live capturing system. Our aim is to have 178 of those in the country by the end of March.” He said people would still be able to visit the offices for birth, death and marriage certificates. Apleni said more than a million smart-ID cards have been issued in less than a year.

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Cape Times

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