DURBAN - Irate members of the public expressed frustration that computers had been down for more than three weeks at the Umgeni Road office.
The IFP yesterday called on Home Affairs Minister Siyabonga Cwele to urgently inspect Home Affairs offices in Durban, following reports of a system crash affecting thousands of residents in the province.
It was shameful just how far services at Home Affairs had degenerated, the IFP said.
“It cannot be that offices are shut down for three weeks, leaving many ID applications hanging in the balance. We therefore call on the home affairs minister to rectify its affairs at the Durban and greater KwaZulu-Natal offices.
“Home Affairs plays a pivotal role in ensuring that all South Africans receive their necessary paperwork, and it is important that during the election cycle that the department is geared up and ready to issue IDs and temporary IDs to the public.
“It is blatantly clear that the ANC is not serious about service delivery. Home Affairs is a key service delivery component in South Africa, and as such should be operating at optimum levels,” the party said, adding that Cwele would do well to inspect operations and brief the public on the status of operations at all Home Affairs offices in the province.
Home Affairs spokesperson David Hlabane said late yesterday that Home Affairs front offices in all provinces were back online and were providing full services to citizens after last week’s service interruptions.
The break in service at some offices arose from a system upgrade of the live capture system that was conducted from March29 to 31. The system was upgraded as part of the department’s modernisation programme, he said.
By the end of the day on April1, most of the front offices were able to transact and issue enabling documents (80%), with the exception of a few (20%) that were offline, he said.
At the moment there were nine offices reported to have camera errors, which were being addressed, he said.
However, all other services, including the collection of IDs, passports and the processing of births, marriages and deaths, were online and available, Hlabane said.