Home Affairs to close for upgrade
RANDBURG – Home Affairs offices will close from 27 November until 2 December to allow for upgrades to be done on their live capture facilities.
140 Home Affairs offices with the live-capture system will close from 27 November until 2 December. This includes the Randburg and Roodepoort medium offices. Home Affairs Director General Mkuseli Apleni pointed out that the there would be a closure in order for upgrades to be done to their offices that offer the live-capture system.
“It is important to share, for the benefit of our clients how this phase of the Smart ID Card system upgrade will impact on them and, to explain the civic duty on the part of each citizen to work with us in making this a smooth process as much as possible,” Apleni said.
He explained that the current system upgrade of live-capture facilities should be seen in the context of the Department’s drive to improve processes for Smart ID cards and passport applications.
He pointed out that enhancements that will be done include introducing:
- A booking system on the e-channel, for people to apply for documents online, in the comfort of their homes or offices.
- A re-enrolment process in terms of which there will be no need to recapture fingerprints within a specified period of re-application.
“Our offices have already put up public notices to announce the system upgrade, and the affected services, to the clients. These innovations should take us closer to creating a paperless environment, with all the benefits of an e-government, are, above all else, for better service,” Apleni said.
The last extensive system upgrade of the live capture facilities Apleni said, was in April, this year. “The benefits to the clients included photo booth enhancements for improved queue management and improvements to systems we use to capture data of clients that cannot be done through normal processes, for babies and persons with disabilities or those who had lost limbs,” he said.
He urged members of the public who have applied for passports, IDs and Smart Cards to timely collect their documents after being notified of their readiness.
Apleni said that there were 195 825 Smart ID cards, 75 517 Green ID books and 51 946 passports not collected.
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