The Department of Home Affairs earlier today announced its new programme to digitize and overhaul the country’s passport issuing system.
Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says due to widespread corruption, the South African passport has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons.
He says the overhaul of the application, issuing- and collection process is to ensure the integrity and overall reputation of the country’s passports.
The Minister says applicants would now only be able to collect their passports in person at the Home Affairs office where they applied for them.
Motsoaledi says all records will be digitized to ensure the smooth running of this programme.
He says once the records are digitized, Home Affairs officials will have access to them at a click of a button and would be able to finalize the applications instantly.
He says any passport collected using whatever method other than the ones announced will not be activated and hence will be of no use to the holder.
Access the Minister’s full briefing here.
Related articles:
- Probe at Home Affairs revealed a multitude of irregularities.
- Home Affairs will beef up its biometric systems to cut down on the number of illegally issued IDs.
We are announcing today that, unfortunately, this can no longer happen. The following measures will have to be followed @Tourism_gov_za pic.twitter.com/ZhrdxFI1Sn
— HomeAffairsSA 🇿🇦 (@HomeAffairsSA) August 11, 2022
