A power outage at the State Information Technology Agency (Sita) on Friday left home affairs virtually nonoperational, according to a Business Day report. The outage also affected the systems of other government departments, including the websites of the presidency and the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS).
Home affairs spokesperson Thabo Mokgola confirmed: “Offices are unable to render all services due to the home affairs national identification system (Hanis), national population register, and live capture systems that are not working. All birth, marriages, death, smart ID and passport services are affected.”
Sita could not be reached for comment.
Systems failures appear to be an ongoing problem. In July, home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba admitted that his department experiences approximately 20 system down-times a month, due to power cuts, unresponsive generators and issues with Telkom data lines.
The problem remained unresolved at 4pm on Friday.
Eisenberg & Associates South African immigration and nationality experts.