A number of government websites, including Home Affairs’, have been affected by a power failure at the State Information Technology Agency (Sita).
The home affairs department said it was experiencing a system shutdown nationwide, and this had affected a number of services, including applications for birth, marriage and death certificates, as well as the processing and collection of smart IDs and passports.
1/2: #DHA is experiencing system downtime due to power supply outage at SITA which has affected all offices across the country. Offices are unable to render all services due to HANIS, National Population Register and Live Capture systems that are not working.
— HomeAffairsSA (@HomeAffairsSA) August 10, 2018
@HomeAffairsSA @mgigaba
— Manx4 Xolani (@Mthabela_Xolani) August 10, 2018
Our home Affairs system is a real pain and depressing. Thousands of South Africans have been up early morning for applications, only to find out they are OFFLINE! How many times must one book off work for this? @CyrilRamaphosa @GovernmentZA we need Help!
@HomeAffairsSA this is the queue at Randburg Department of Home Affairs because once again your systems are offline and have been so since Wednesday! How is this the status of affairs on this country. I have waited 25 weeks for an unabridged marriage certificate! Unacceptable ?? pic.twitter.com/ZlX0DqbSRm
— karin iten (@karin_iten) August 10, 2018
Home affairs and traffic department same whattsapp group. I struggle an entire week when i wanted to renew my license. If its not electricity then its system offline
— IG: ayandashongwe (@ms_shongwe) August 10, 2018
The websites of the Presidency, Government Communication and Information System, and the main gov.za portal were also affected.
The home affairs department offered its apologies to clients and said its technicians, as well as those from Sita, were looking into the problem.
The department said clients would be updated on when services would be restored.
2/2:All Birth, Marriages, Death, Smart ID and Passport services are affected.
— HomeAffairsSA (@HomeAffairsSA) August 10, 2018
SITA and #DHA Technicians are investigating the problem, and clients will be updated on when services will be restored. Home Affairs apologises for the inconvenience caused to all the clients.
Business Insider SA reported that Sita had promised to have all websites up and running by 2.30pm, however, systems are still down and Sita couldn’t be reached for updates.