Smart ID and passport system going offline

The Department of Home Affairs’s Live Capture system will be closed for a period of five days.

As of 27 November 2015‚ 14h00‚ until 02 December 2015‚ identity documents and passport services will not be available as the 140 home affairs offices – which are equipped with Live Capture systems across the country – will be closed for business during this period.

Mkuseli Apleni‚ director general of home affairs‚ said that this should be seen in the context of the department’s drive to improve processes for Smart ID card and passport applications.

According to Apleni‚ full services as enhanced‚ “should resume on 03 December 2015”.

Enhancements favouring clients‚ 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 if which there will be no need to recapture fingerprints within a specified period of re-applications.

These system and hardware upgrades also include being able to go to your bank and be able to do fingerprints and as well as taking photo’s. Furthermore‚ EFT payments will be made available at the home affairs offices.

Apleni said certain offices have already put up notices to inform the public.

“Our offices have already put up public notices to announce the system upgrade‚ and the affected services to the clients.

“These innovations that should take us closer to creating a paperless environment with all the benefits of e-government‚ are above all else‚ for better service‚” said Apleni.

He also said citizens have a duty to collect the documents that they had applied for because the numbers of uncollected documents is on the rise.

So far‚ documents which have not been collected sit at 195‚825 Smart ID cards‚ 75‚517 green ID books and passports sit at 51‚946.

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