Home Affairs slashes system downtime by 61% in 'major digital turnaround'

Home Affairs offices in South Africa experienced a 61% decrease in system downtime during the 2025/26 financial year, according to government statistics. Minister Leon Schreiber credited this improvement to digital reforms designed to modernize the department's technology infrastructure and enhance service delivery. System failures that caused offices to become unavailable dropped substantially over the past year, marking a significant milestone in the department's digital transformation program.

Total working hours lost to system downtime dropped from 35,426 hours in the 2024/25 financial year to 13,867 hours in the 2025/26 year. This progress came from targeted interventions such as upgrading network infrastructure, modernizing front-office applications, replacing outdated equipment, and eliminating single points of failure that previously caused prolonged disruptions.

The improvements were observed across all nine provinces, with the Free State leading at 79% reduction, followed by Mpumalanga at 68%. Gauteng achieved a 66% reduction, and the Western Cape saw a 65% decrease. The North West province, while having the smallest gain, still managed a 41% reduction. Schreiber emphasized that the 61% reduction in working hours lost to system downtime signifies the latest achievement in their digital transformation journey.

The reforms have not only expanded access to Home Affairs services, with 408 bank branches rolling out digital Smart ID services in the past five months, but have also improved the overall quality of service at departmental offices. The minister highlighted that these reforms are changing public perceptions of Home Affairs by making services more accessible and reliable.

Schreiber expressed that while their work is not complete, South Africans accessing services at new bank branches or existing departmental offices now have a vastly better experience compared to previous failures associated with the department. Additional work is underway to strengthen real-time system performance monitoring to further reduce outages and improve efficiency at Home Affairs offices nationwide.