Home Affairs Minister says his department is “generally praised for its effectiveness”, and the data collected by the department is evidence of this.
In a recent parliamentary Q&A, the Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, was asked whether his department had solved the problem of long queues and denial of service on reaching the counter after a long time in the queue.
The question also included an inquiry into his findings on citizen satisfaction with the service provided by his department.
In response, Motsoaledi said customer satisfaction and waiting times are constantly monitored across all DHA branches and noted the average waiting time inside an office is reasonably quick, albeit with some caveats.
The minister referenced the Home Affairs Customer Satisfaction Survey for 2022/23, which found a general improvement in queue management, with an increase in the scores across the different customer interaction points.
Motsoaledi noted that the average waiting period for various services is:
• 7 minutes for pre-booked services;
• 10 minutes for birth, marriage, and death services; and
• 15 minutes for walk-in services.
He said that the Customer Satisfaction Score for each service channel was generally high, with scores above 70%, adding that DHA was generally praised for its effectiveness.
“The majority of respondents (82%) were DHA promoters whilst

6% were detractors, giving a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 76%. The higher the NPS, the healthier the brand,” he said.
Those who would recommend were captured as promoters, and those neutral would be passives, whilst those who would not recommend would be detractors.
Despite the good, the minister did note some challenges flagged by “the minority” of customers.
The main reasons mentioned by the minority that would not recommend DHA across all customer segments were poor customer service, slow customer service, and lousy staff attitude.
Motsoaledi agreed that the friendliness of Home Affairs officials was highlighted as the most significant challenge, while admitting that there were still complaints of waiting in unmanaged queues for long hours and the inability of staff to resolve queries or treat customers fairly.
Regarding the department’s online performance, the minister said that overall, the DHA online processes were rated relatively high.
However, lack of speed, particularly regarding receiving documents and the payment process, emerged as the most popular barrier to online service excellence.
Considering this, the minister added that recommendations provided in the survey’s report are currently being implemented to address the lingering issues identified. V.5257

There are fears that more people will be separated by the introduction of a minimum salary level for those wanting UK family visas. Families living in the UK and abroad have raised concerns about what new rules will mean for them as they try to reunite with foreign spouses. In December, the Home Office, which says migration to the UK is too high, announced a package of measures to reduce net migration, following a spike in arrival numbers. V.5318
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An Ethiopian asylum seeker, who does not speak English, claims he was duped by a senior immigration official into paying an admission of guilt fine when he thought he was paying for bail.Two Western Cape High Court judges have condemned the official`s `deplorable` behaviour, set aside the fine, and ordered the immigration official be taken off the case. Tsegaye Esyas claims Annelise van Dyk treated him like an animal which led to him attempt suicide while in police cells. V.5320
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EREMY MAGGS: I want to stay with crime now. Individuals with a criminal record may be faced with significant challenges when seeking employment, I think that’s a given. Here in South Africa, employers may legally exclude an applicant from consideration for a position if having a clean criminal record is what is termed an inherent requirement of the job. That phrase, inherent requirement, is important, but what exactly does that mean, and when can an applicant be lawfully excluded for having a criminal record? V.5321
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As a South African who has adopted a nomadic work lifestyle alongside my wife, Ingrid Lotze, I’ve been an interested observer of South Africa’s snail-pace digital nomad visa (DNV) development process. Despite the optimism surrounding its introduction, the visa seems to miss several crucial marks for digital nomads like us. V.5322
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DA MP says hours lost continue to result in persons being unable to collect their ID documents due to unmanageable queues The DA has been inundated with complaints that the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) systems are offline, resulting in long queues and delayed processing of documents. Through questions posed to the Minister, the DA can now reveal that the DHA has lost over 77 years’ worth of working hours due to system downtime and load-shedding from 2019 to date. Concerningly, this data only relates to hours lost for the application of smart IDs, meaning decades more of working hours could have been additionally lost in other spheres such as passport or visa applications. V.5314
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Home Affairs’ seemingly endless court battles set the department back more than R110-million between April 2023 and the end of February this year. This was revealed in a written parliamentary response by minister Aaron Motsoaledi. He said the department accumulated a litigation bill of R117 692 996.3, higher than the R72 637 944.51 spent the year before. V.5315
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Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) this week revealed that Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) has achieved a ground-breaking milestone by processing more than 10 million passengers over a single financial year. This is the highest number of regional and international passengers processed since COVID-19 V.5316
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In recent years, South Africa has seen a significant influx of immigrants from various African countries, as well as other parts of the world. This has raised important questions about the country`s immigration policies and their impact on job creation for both locals and immigrants. The South African immigration system, like many other countries, is a complex and ever-evolving process that aims to balance the country`s economic needs with its social and cultural interests. Let`s take a closer look at how this system intersects with job creation in South Africa. The South African government implemented the Immigration Act of 2002, which outlines the country`s immigration policies and procedures. Under this act, foreigners are required to obtain a visa or permit to enter, work, or study in South Africa. The type of visa or permit required depends on the intended purpose of the individual`s visit and their country of origin. V.5312
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Due to system downtime and load-shedding, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) lost nearly 141,000 hours of Smart ID application and production time between the 2019/20 and 2022/23 financial years. Minister Aaron Motsoaledi revealed this figure in a recent response to questions raised in Parliament by Democratic Alliance MP Adrian Roos. Motsoaledi provided a breakdown of smart ID production and application hours lost to technical difficulties and load-shedding per province for each financial year from 2019/2020. These disruptions hit home Affairs offices in the Eastern Cape the hardest, with over 34,000 hours to rotational power cuts and system downtime. Mpumalanga offices lost the next-highest number of hours at 17 V.5313
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Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has said the public has shown great support for the final White Paper on citizenship, immigration and refugee protection which appeared in the Government Gazette on Wednesday. Briefing the media, he addressed what he saw as a long-overdue need to replace an outdated Citizenship Act, as well as enact proposed changes to existing legislation. V.5306
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