The system is down — Behind Home Affairs’ IT downtime problem

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber says outdated systems, power supply challenges, and delayed infrastructure upgrades are behind the system downtime at his department’s offices.

This is according to Schreiber’s response to a Parliamentary question concerning downtime at his department and how it intends to mitigate it.

“The challenges stem from outdated legacy systems, intermittent power supply, and limited responsiveness in maintaining and upgrading infrastructure,” Shreiber said.

The Minister also referenced Home Affairs’ ongoing problems with the State IT Agency (Sita), which Schreiber’s predecessor, Aaron Motsoaledi, was also very vocal about during his time governing the department.

Due to these ongoing frustrations, the Department of Home Affairs formally applied to be exempted from using Sita to procure ICT equipment and services.

“Delays and inefficiencies in service provision from the Sita have further exacerbated system unavailability, often leading to service disruptions that affect citizens’ ability to access essential services,” he said.

“Additionally, the Department faces ongoing funding constraints, which limit its capacity to modernise critical infrastructure and ensure reliable connectivity across all sites.”

Since assuming his position in July last year, Schreiber has made it his mission to digitise his department’s operations to fight fraudsters who create fake documents.

Part of this mission is to improve broadband connectivity at Home Affairs offices around the country, many of which still rely on a 2Mbps connection.

“I am obsessed with this particular issue because it can be fixed,” Schreiber said in an August 2024 interview.

“One of the fundamental problems is something as elementary as bandwidth. We’re sitting with offices that have 2Mbps lines in the year 2024.”

He said his department compared branches with slow Internet connections and higher-speed lines, such as the Wynberg office in Cape Town, which has a 1Gbps connection.

New partners and regulations

However, the Minister said his department has introduced several initiatives to solve these issues. 

“One of the key interventions is the expansion of third-party data verification services, which will generate additional internal revenue to support system upgrades,” Schreiber said.

This was announced in March this year, with Home Affairs estimating that it could generate R2.3 billion from fee increases for the service.

Schreiber also mentioned a system diagnostic performed by the Centre for Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR), resulting in several actionable recommendations.

These included upgrading Home Affairs’ applications and infrastructure to improve network speed and reduce incidents of downtime in front offices.

“Implementation of these recommendations is currently underway and includes measures to improve system performance, network stability, and operational oversight.”

In addition, Schreiber said his department formed a number of new partnerships to help stabilise its digital environment.

“Enhanced internal controls and governance processes have been introduced to improve system monitoring, reduce downtime, and protect sensitive data,” he said.

“The Department further welcomes the recent regulations published by the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies in terms of the Sita Act, which will enable more responsive sourcing of ICT services.”

Since applying to cut ties with Sita, communications minister Solly Malatsi amended the Sita Act, allowing government departments to sidestep the agency should its processes be less efficient and cost-effective than a private supplier.

Lastly, Schreiber said that Home Affairs is “exploring alternative service delivery channels”, including collaborating with third parties for service rollout in off-site or decentralised locations.