Letter to the editor - Home Affairs bank branch chaos

Jan

Jan

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Nightmare at Home Affairs bank branch — where the system also goes offline

There is no guarantee that using one of the few Home Affairs branches located at South Africa's major banks will offer a seamless experience.

Many South Africans, including MyBroadband's journalists, have had relatively trouble-free excursions to apply for and collect their smart ID cards or passports at these offices.
 
Its appears to me that its just a room that DHA rents from the bank? Their own guards, systems, staff, lines, etc. Why does it involve banks at all? Why cant it be just be a random office anywhere?
 
bixt said:
Its appears to me that its just a room that DHA rents from the bank? Their own guards, systems, staff, lines, etc. Why does it involve banks at all? Why cant it be just be a random office anywhere?
Click to expand...

This is an excellent question. The banks just provide the office space, nothing more.
 
Camera issue sounds like a problem with the software application, assuming its a standard webcam (which it should be), the OS will detect it when it just gets plugged back in. If the app is only checking on startup, and not polling every now and again, it won't find the camera. But surely that issue gets logged with the IT help desk, and the developers just adjust the code for camera detection....

Ah I remember fondly the days of every Department having it's own in-house IT guys to tweak and adjust those apps quickly. Even if it is outsourced, they have to have a paid service level agreement in place that deals with bugs and enhancements (the latter often attracting extra cost). What we used to do for maintenance SLA's, was include a stated extra amount of hours every month in the paid support, which could be used for enhancements, or rolled over if not, for bigger changes. Those hours were allocated against logged trouble tickets. It's not rocket science tuff.
 
Heard from a friend his experience from the bank was not much different to home affairs. Had to go back 3 times. Maybe at least not have to pitch up at 5am to get helped at whatever time they close it you lucky.
 
I did mine via Standard bank. 5 minute wait to go in, quick with my kids too. Week later got notification to collect. 5 min wait and got the passports.

Must be an FNB thing. With Std Bank they limited the amount that can come within an hour. Or maybe a Gauteng thing? Outside the Cape Republic we dont seem to have these issues.

But then driving here looks like this..

1648640618730.png

compared to your side....

1648640667725.png
 
Most of my troubles with applying for my Smart ID and my daughter's first ID were from the damned Home Affairs website. The site is slow sure, but worse, it's infested with bugs. Multiple times throughout the process I had to use the browser dev tools to work around some bug. I'm a software engineer, I have no idea how the average person is getting through that online application process.

Once my application was through, the rest was pretty painless. Took about 20mins at Standard Bank Canal Walk for biometrics, 2 weeks later 15 mins for collection.

Overhearing conversations in the queue, it seemed like quite a few people were going to the bank to actually do the initial application because the online process was, to put it politely, "completely f****d".
 
Danie_V said:
Camera issue sounds like a problem with the software application, assuming its a standard webcam (which it should be), the OS will detect it when it just gets plugged back in. If the app is only checking on startup, and not polling every now and again, it won't find the camera. But surely that issue gets logged with the IT help desk, and the developers just adjust the code for camera detection....

Ah I remember fondly the days of every Department having it's own in-house IT guys to tweak and adjust those apps quickly. Even if it is outsourced, they have to have a paid service level agreement in place that deals with bugs and enhancements (the latter often attracting extra cost). What we used to do for maintenance SLA's, was include a stated extra amount of hours every month in the paid support, which could be used for enhancements, or rolled over if not, for bigger changes. Those hours were allocated against logged trouble tickets. It's not rocket science tuff.
Click to expand...
They use DSLR cameras
 
Corelli said:
I did mine via Standard bank. 5 minute wait to go in, quick with my kids too. Week later got notification to collect. 5 min wait and got the passports.

Must be an FNB thing. With Std Bank they limited the amount that can come within an hour. Or maybe a Gauteng thing? Outside the Cape Republic we dont seem to have these issues.

But then driving here looks like this..



compared to your side....
Click to expand...

Where is that Std bank branch, I need to get ID and pass renewed ASAP
 
Corelli said:
I did mine via Standard bank. 5 minute wait to go in, quick with my kids too. Week later got notification to collect. 5 min wait and got the passports.

Must be an FNB thing. With Std Bank they limited the amount that can come within an hour. Or maybe a Gauteng thing? Outside the Cape Republic we dont seem to have these issues.

But then driving here looks like this..

View attachment 1280342

compared to your side....

View attachment 1280346
Click to expand...
I also had an excellent & seamless Passport experience (in Dec) at S.Bank/**** Canal Walk in the Cape Republic.

**** is almost always running better here. Countless examples.
 
FiestaST said:

Get your Smart ID or passport

Apply for your Smart ID or passport on E-Home Affairs and collect your documents at one of our participating branches when it’s ready.
www.standardbank.co.za www.standardbank.co.za

Canal Walk, smooth experience.
Click to expand...
Thanks, wish the sign-in to the home affairs site was smooth. The Wait wheel turns for 5+ munutes after trying to sign in. Then bombs out. Then 10 minutes after that I get a sms with a login pin but can not log in due to site not working
 
irBosOtter said:
Thanks, wish the sign-in to the home affairs site was smooth. The Wait wheel turns for 5+ munutes after trying to sign in. Then bombs out. Then 10 minutes after that I get a sms with a login pin but can not log in due to site not working
Click to expand...
Give it a few mins & try again. The broken link in all this is HA but it will (eventually) work.
 
An example of what a dismissive "just reboot it" can lead to, when it's said to an ANC cadre.
 
FiestaST said:
Give it a few mins & try again. The broken link in all this is HA but it will (eventually) work.
Click to expand...

Yeah been struggeling to get in there for months to be honest. If I leave that wheel turning for 25 minutes it then comes right, but then the OTP has obviously expired and then it all starts again from the beginning.... Guess they don't want me to log in
 
Corelli said:
I did mine via Standard bank. 5 minute wait to go in, quick with my kids too. Week later got notification to collect. 5 min wait and got the passports.

Must be an FNB thing. With Std Bank they limited the amount that can come within an hour. Or maybe a Gauteng thing? Outside the Cape Republic we dont seem to have these issues.

But then driving here looks like this..

View attachment 1280342

compared to your side....

View attachment 1280346
Click to expand...
Loks the same NW/Cowteng border....
 
irBosOtter said:
Yeah been struggeling to get in there for months to be honest. If I leave that wheel turning for 25 minutes it then comes right, but then the OTP has obviously expired and then it all starts again from the beginning.... Guess they don't want me to log in
Click to expand...
Yea.. that website is crazy. Don't try after 6pm, I think they switch off the servers after 6pm.....
 
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