The department of home affairs has cleared the backlog of nearly 250,000 identity documents in one month it said in a statement Wednesday.
The backlog started to accumulate in November 2023 following a change in IT service providers, which created a bottleneck in multiple areas in the production value chain, from the office of application, to application authentication, to printing and to final issuing of the ID.
“As a result, nearly a quarter of a million applications became ‘stuck’ in a growing backlog,” the statement said.
“As part of the department’s commitment to clearing backlogs and enhancing efficiency, on August 21 2024, home affairs consolidated all of the ‘stuck’ IDs into a single database in order to systematically clear the backlog. On that day, there were 247,500 IDs in the backlog.
“Today, on September 25 2024, the number is zero, with the backlog completely eradicated.”
Home affairs officials have ensured that applications have been “unstuck” so that IDs — which are a crucial document required for a multitude of transactions — could be made available to clients.
“The clearing of the ID backlog, which had been accumulating since November 2023, within a single month, serves as yet more tangible proof that long-standing challenges at home affairs can be resolved when we work in a systematic and focused manner,” home affairs minister Leon Schreiber said.
“This achievement, alongside our progress in reducing the visa backlog, reforming regulations to attract tourism, skills and investment, as well as the important initial steps we are taking towards digital transformation, should lead to growing confidence in our ability to drive the reforms required for home affairs to deliver dignity to all.
“The clearing of this specific backlog also signifies our commitment to turn home affairs into a powerful economic enabler, as the individuals affected by the backlog can now seek employment, open accounts, and gain access to social grants.”
Schreiber cautioned there was still a lot of work to do, with the priority being the digital transformation of the department so that ID and other applications could be submitted digitally and the documents delivered to homes.
“We are committed to realising it with the same systematic approach that enabled us to clear the ID backlog,” the minister said.
The department’s office hours on Saturdays until October 12 have been extended so people can collect their IDs and other civic documentation. On Saturday, more than 9,200 did so between 8am and 1pm.
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