Elections 2024: ID ‘sabotage’ ahead of polls

United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa accused the government of intentionally slowing down the home affairs system to sabotage the voters’ turnout during Wednesday’s general election.

In some parts of the country the home affairs system has been down for the whole of last week, while in other parts it was down from Wednesday to Saturday morning, failing to issue ID documents and passports.

Crisis ‘intentional’?

In an interview with The Citizen at the weekend, Holomisa alleged there was a possibility the system was interrupted intentionally, “to prevent the new voters from being part of the upcoming elections”.

“This will benefit certain parties that realise they might lose the elections, so they’re not sure which party the new and old voters are going to vote for,” he said.

“Remember, in the previous elections many people decided not to vote and now we are not sure which party they are going to vote for.

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“Chances are they might come back to vote during this week’s elections. So some big parties are panicking, hence they are trying to block the voters to minimise the numbers.”

On Friday, Holomisa wrote a letter to the president urging him to intervene in the crisis.

A Gauteng-based home affairs employee, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Citizen the system was restored on Saturday morning.

“We have already started working and people are getting their IDs. Indeed, the system was down at our offices from Wednesday until Friday,” said the source.

‘System is down’

A resident from Roodepoort shared the same sentiment, claiming he tried in vain to get his renewed ID because the local office had not been issuing documentation due to the system being down for the whole week.

“I went there every day last week hoping to get my renewed ID card but I was told the same story that the system was down.

“The Roodepoort office is always having a system breakdown. When I was there a lady at the reception desk, instead of helping and explaining the delay courteously just became rude towards applicants,” said an applicant, who urged to remain anonymous.

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President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya sent a short statement issued by home affairs conceding that the system was indeed down and affected the issuing of ID cards.

Backup systems to get IDs to applicants

“Home Affairs IT engineers implemented two backup systems to enable citizens to collect their documents.

“As of noon on Saturday, the backup systems were working and offices were issuing documents to applicants.

“There were more than 6 100 people assisted this morning and 4 000 of them collected their documents,” the statement read.