On Thursday January 4 the Department of Home Affairs issued an alert to citizens that its services are not available at the moment. This is due to a technical problem with the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) mainframe which affects access to the National Population Register (NPR).
In a statement released by the department, it said that they are attending to the matter and hope to have it resolved soon.
“We have contacted SITA and have been assured that its technicians and engineers are attending to the matter. We hope that this will not take too long to be resolved,” said the department in a statement. “The department will ensure that further updates will be provided to the public. We sincerely apologise to citizens and clients for the inconvenience caused.”
It is believed that the system crashed due to the high volume of data being recorded.
Siya Qoza, the department’s head of communications, said they were working tirelessly to ensure that the system was back on track to resume operations. Home Affairs offices will still be open, offering other services, including visa applications and birth and death certificates, he added.
The South African Home Affairs Department is mandated to manage citizenship and civic status, international migration, refugee protection, and the population register. Executing its mandate allows the department to be a key enabler of national security, citizen empowerment, efficient administration and socio-economic development.
The department’s core civic duties are maintaining the National Population Register (NPR), managing the birth, marriage and death records, as well as determining and granting citizenship, issuing travel documents and passports and issuing identity documents (ID).
Travellers and border management will not be affected by the technical problems, the ministry said. However, some vital services will not be available while maintenance is being carried out.
The date of completion of maintenance has not been confirmed as yet.
