The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has verified that its services are currently not available due to a technical fault on the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) mainframe. It said this affected access to the National Population Register (NPR).
“The Department of Home Affairs wishes to regrettably alert citizens that its services are not available at the moment due to a technical problem on the State Information Technology Agency (Sita) mainframe, which affects access to the National Population Register (NPR),” it said in a statement.
It is believed that the system crashed due to the high volume of data being recorded.
South Africans have long been frustrated by the long queues trying to fix their documents with the department, and foreign nationals are also affected when trying to get their documents legally captured.
The department’s head of communications, Siya Qoza said they were working tirelessly to ensure that the system was back on track to resume operations.
Home Affairs offices will still be open, offering other services, including visa applications, birth and death certificates.
“We have contacted SITA and have been assured that its technicians and engineers are attending to the matter. We hope that this will not take long to be resolved,” he said.
The department said updates on the matter would be further communicated. “The department apologises to citizens and clients for the inconvenience caused,” it said.