In one month, the Department of Home Affairs has managed to clear the Identity Documents (ID) backlog that began to accumulate in November 2023, following a change in IT service providers.

Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber described bottlenecks in multiple areas in the production value chain, the office of application-to-application authentication, printing, and in the final issuing of the ID.

He said as a result, nearly a quarter of a million applications became "stuck" in a growing backlog.

“Today, on September 25, the number is zero, with the backlog completely eradicated,” he said.

As part of its commitment to clearing backlogs and enhancing efficiency, in August, Home Affairs consolidated all the "stuck" IDs into a single database to systematically clear the backlog.

On that day, there were 247 500 IDs in the backlog, said Schreiber.

“Since then, officials have worked tirelessly to ensure that applications are ‘unstuck’ for IDs to reach clients who were waiting to gain access to this important piece of civic documentation, without which they cannot become active participants in the economy,” he highlighted.

Schreiber said this feat proved that longstanding challenges at Home Affairs could be resolved when work was done in a systematic and focused manner.

“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,” he stated.

He said the clearing of this specific backlog also signified the department’s 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.

"We still have much more to do. Our apex priority is the wholesale digital transformation of Home Affairs to create a new system where South Africans should be able to submit ID and other applications from the comfort of their own home through a digital platform, followed by the delivery of these documents to their doorstep,” he noted.

Home Affairs has also extended office hours on every Saturday, between 08:00 and 13:00, until October 12, to enable clients to collect their IDs and other civic documentation. This past Saturday, more than 9 200 people took advantage of the opportunity.