The Department of Home affairs said it has cleared a backlog of 247 500 identity documents which had started accumulating since November 2023 following a change in IT service providers.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the department said the changeover created a bottleneck in multiple areas in the production value chain. This impacted the office of application, application authentication, printing, and the final issuing of the ID.
“The clearing of the ID backlog, which had been accumulating since November 2023, within a single month, serves as yet more tangible proof that long-standing challenges at Home Affairs can be resolved when we work in a systematic and focused manner,” said the department’s minister, Leon Schreiber.
“The clearing of this specific backlog also signifies our commitment to turn Home Affairs into a powerful economic enabler, as the individuals affected by the backlog can now seek employment, open accounts, and gain access to social grants,” he added.
Moreover, Schreiber said this action should lead to growing confidence in the department’s ability to drive the reforms required for Home Affairs to deliver dignity to all.
The department is also making progress in reducing the visa backlog and taking steps towards digital transformation.
“We still have much more to do. Our apex priority is the wholesale digital transformation of Home Affairs to create a new system where South Africans should be able to submit ID and other applications from the comfort of their own home through a digital platform, followed by the delivery of these documents to their doorstep,” said Schreiber.
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