Plan to keep Home Affairs systems online in South Africa

The Department of Home Affairs contracted the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to help determine the root cause of its system downtime, commonly experienced in offices nationwide.

Responding to a Parliamentary Q&A, Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said that the CSIR conducted a system downtime diagnostics assessment, which has since been completed.

“The CSIR recommended upgrades of the applications and infrastructure to improve network speed and reduce incidents of downtime in front offices,” Schreiber said.

“The introduction of digital platforms will also reduce the number of clients who visit offices, which will reduce queues.”

The State Information Technology Agency (Sita) would typically be responsible for all state-ICT infrastructure and systems. However, the DHA recently applied to sever ties with the agency.

In its attempt to improve service delivery at Home Affairs offices, Schreiber says that his department has made progress in stabilising key systems.

“Following a change in service providers, the stabilisation of critical systems such as Live Capture and Back Office functions is making meaningful progress,” Schreiber told Parliament.

“After the deterioration in the quality of IT systems, emergency interventions were undertaken to protect system environments, ensuring continuity and improvement in service delivery.”

The minister also mentioned the progress in expanding access to Home Affairs services and reducing the length of queues at branches.

Schreiber said that partnerships with banks and retailers will help to offer smart ID and passport services at more accessible locations, including improving accessibility in rural and underserved areas.

In its annual performance plan for the 2025/26 financial year, the DHA said that by the end of the year, it planned to roll out live capture services to an additional 100 bank branches.

In the same plan, Home Affairs said it aims to roll out another 400 by the end of the following year, and another 500 by the end of the 2027/28 financial year. 

However, the Banking Association of South Africa (Basa) says the deal with the DHA to extend the rollout of its services to bank branches has yet to be finalised.

Schreiber also recently told MyBroadband that the rollout of services to bank branches is merely a precursor to the same services becoming available on banking apps.

“Our goal is to enable our services to be available virtually, including through banking apps, so that clients can access those services from the comfort of their own homes,” Schreiber said.

“This is all part of the same process, as integrating Home Affairs services onto banking platforms in branches is the logical precursor to delivering those same services online and on apps.”

Home Affairs files for divorce

The DHA recently filed a formal application to be exempted from using Sita to procure its ICT equipment and services.

This is because, according to the Sita Act, all government departments at the national and provincial levels are mandated to source IT services and equipment through the agency or from it.

The “Sita’s customers” page on the agency’s website says it currently services 80 state entities at the national level and 135 at the provincial level.

However, Home Affairs argued that the issues caused by Sita’s inefficiencies have disrupted the DHA’s ability to maintain reliable infrastructure and meet its strategic objectives.

That includes work on critical projects like the Biometric Movement Control System and the Automatic Biometric Information System.

“Furthermore, Sita’s inefficiencies in managing third-party contracts, such as with BCX and Telkom, have exacerbated operational risks, affecting national security and service delivery,” the department said.

Due to Sita’s failures, the DHA has faced repeated disruptions, which have made it challenging to achieve performance targets and ensure stable service delivery to citizens.

The department said an exemption would allow it to source IT services from more reliable and cost-effective external providers.

However, despite the DHA’s complaints, Sita believes it has delivered on all agreed-upon outcomes, adding that Home Affairs only procures 20% of its ICT services from it.

“Apart from procurement delays affecting a small portion of services, Sita has delivered all agreed-upon outcomes and service milestones,” it said in a statement.

“Many of these were implemented under significant budgetary constraints from Home Affairs.”

Sita spokesperson Tlai Tlali also revealed that Home Affairs is yet to upgrade from the Bronze level service agreement.

He said the Bronze product has a 16-business-hour turnaround time for resolving issues and only supports up to 2Mbps speeds on a copper-based connection.