Durban – The Department of Home Affairs services are temporarily unavailable, according to a statement by Home Affairs on Thursday.
Home Affairs spokesperson Siya Qoza said: “The Department of Home Affairs wishes to regrettably alert citizens that its services are not available at the moment due to a technical problem on the State Information Technology Agency (Sita) mainframe which affects access to the National Population Register.”
Qoza said Home Affairs had contacted Sita and had been assured that its technicians and engineers were attending to the matter.
“We hope that this will not take long to be resolved,” Qoza said.
“We will provide further updates.”
The department apologised to citizens and clients for the inconvenience caused.
This is how Facebook users reacted to the announcement:
Wilma Gouws Dye said: “Wow. That is unusual (NOT – sarcastic). When I applied for my new smart card ID and passport in November last year the system crashed not less than three times while I was there. Making an appointment online means absolutely nothing. I arrived there 45 minutes earlier than my appointment which was at 10am and I was still waiting in the queue at 11.30am whilst people arriving after me were helped first. I must add that I am 65 years old but the fact that they advertise that they attend to pensioners first definitely didn’t happen while I was there. The attitude, lack of friendliness and helpfulness of the staff is 100% non-existent.
“When I went to fetch my ID and passport I went through the same pathetic service. After sitting in the queue for over an hour and being given a ticket number I was cross-questioned as to how I got the ticket number and who instructed me to go inside the building, as I was supposed to wait outside until being called. They didn’t have my name and I didn’t have a ticket number so how the h**l were they going to call me without that information? The system again crashed three times while I was there. Worst experience I have ever gone through.”
Leisl van Zyl said the system had been down since Friday, December 29.
“Time to recall your Sita technicians back from their holiday. Four working days of no service,” Van Zyl said.
Nareshkumar Sewsaran asked why Home Affairs could not fix a technical issue.
Friedhild Meyer said: “What’s new?”
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