Intermittent eHomeAffairs downtime

Jan

Jan

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Big problem with renewing your smart ID or passport at a bank branch

The Department of Home Affairs' eHomeAffairs platform for booking smart ID and passport applications at bank branches across South Africa offers a convenient alternative to queueing at Home Affairs branches.

However, there is a challenge: the service has been frequently unavailable recently, creating uncertainty around booking application slots using the platform. Most recently, it was unavailable for two consecutive days last week.
 
Still a "Big problem with renewing your smart ID or passport at a bank branch":

1741245509541.png

I am a South African citizen.
Just not born in country.
Naturalized for over 30 years.
 
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We don't have any banks in my small town where it can be done.

The wife and I spend 4 hours at HomeAffairs to renew our passports and she also applied for a ID card.

It takes forever to receive any notification to collect. Their toll free no doesn't work; the track your passport on their website doesn't work. There is no way to contact them and when you go to their offices to enquire you are told to stand in the queue that is miles long. They always close their doors way before closing time.

Today, 1 month later I received my sms that i can collect my passport but the wife still hasn't received anything.
 
Overall, it's a better experience than Home Affairs. However, it still runs on the Home Affairs platform(?), so it's still subject to downtime and slow systems.

This is a big gotcha because I recently went into the bank after making a booking and paying. On that day, the system was having issues, and a process that should have taken 20 mins took 2.5 hrs. In a normal Home Affairs situation, you could curse and walk out, but in the bank situation, you have paid for a booking and gotten a slot (that took a week to find). If you walk out, you lose all of that.

I'll carry on using the bank, but it is a gamble.
 
MyBroadband asked Home Affairs about the recent downtime and what was causing it, but it hadn’t responded by publication.
Click to expand...

Hey DHA, any comment?

3 minutes later: POST ARTICLE.

:ROFL:
 
SlowInternet said:
We don't have any banks in my small town where it can be done.

The wife and I spend 4 hours at HomeAffairs to renew our passports and she also applied for a ID card.

It takes forever to receive any notification to collect. Their toll free no doesn't work; the track your passport on their website doesn't work. There is no way to contact them and when you go to their offices to enquire you are told to stand in the queue that is miles long. They always close their doors way before closing time.

Today, 1 month later I received my sms that i can collect my passport but the wife still hasn't received anything.
Click to expand...
DA will fix home affairs ;)
 
Home affairs is a disgrace! Waited for two hours yesterday. Was the last person in the whole place - time was 3:55, was almost done, just had to pay and leave. Cashier downed tools as it was 3:58. Now my wife has to drive an hour and a half BACK to home affairs just to pay them.
Their excuse: the 'Union' they are with says they MUST stop working at exactly 4pm. This is why we can't have nice things in SA. Oh, and just BTW - the DA handles HA in the Cape!
 
The Darkness said:
Home affairs is a disgrace! Waited for two hours yesterday. Was the last person in the whole place - time was 3:55, was almost done, just had to pay and leave. Cashier downed tools as it was 3:58. Now my wife has to drive an hour and a half BACK to home affairs just to pay them.
Their excuse: the 'Union' they are with says they MUST stop working at exactly 4pm. This is why we can't have nice things in SA. Oh, and just BTW - the DA handles HA in the Cape!
Click to expand...

Does the DA run the Union as well ... , just idly wondering.
 
The Darkness said:
No, they won't. their systems are slow and/or offline. Their staff don't get overtime, no incentive to be excellent. It's like the post office, but just one that there isn't an alternative 'Stateproof' option for.
Click to expand...

I give them about 5% chance - they have too much dead weight inertia to over come.
 
BeerIsNotGood... said:
Overtime Lmao...
Click to expand...
I offered the cashier R100 just to swipe my card - I was standing at her desk, ready to pay, all she had to do was put the amount into the card machine and let me tap. She logged off right in front of my eyes! She didn't care that I'd driven an hour and a half to be there, or that I'd pre-booked a slot and done the paperwork online. ZERO fncks given. She didn't take the 'incentive' either, which was surprising!
 
elf_lord_ZC5 said:
Does the DA run the Union as well ... , just idly wondering.
Click to expand...
One prominent union representing such workers is the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (NEHAWU). NEHAWU has been actively involved in matters concerning the Department of Home Affairs, as evidenced by their public statements on related issues.
 
The Darkness said:
I offered the cashier R100 just to swipe my card - I was standing at her desk, ready to pay, all she had to do was put the amount into the card machine and let me tap. She logged off right in front of my eyes! She didn't care that I'd driven an hour and a half to be there, or that I'd pre-booked a slot and done the paperwork online. ZERO fncks given. She didn't take the 'incentive' either, which was surprising!
Click to expand...
As long as you wouldn't have complained that officials take bribes.

LOL
 
The Darkness said:
One prominent union representing such workers is the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (NEHAWU). NEHAWU has been actively involved in matters concerning the Department of Home Affairs, as evidenced by their public statements on related issues.
Click to expand...


Their [ the Unions ]"public statements" are just hot air escaping, and are totally valueless
 
The Darkness said:
Home affairs is a disgrace! Waited for two hours yesterday. Was the last person in the whole place - time was 3:55, was almost done, just had to pay and leave. Cashier downed tools as it was 3:58. Now my wife has to drive an hour and a half BACK to home affairs just to pay them.
Their excuse: the 'Union' they are with says they MUST stop working at exactly 4pm. This is why we can't have nice things in SA. Oh, and just BTW - the DA handles HA in the Cape!
Click to expand...
We had a similar situation. We were there in the morning and when we had to pay it was close to lunch time and cashier just disappeared. We had to wait about 30 min for someone to come and accept the payment.
 
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