Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has released a media statement on his department’s “war on queues”, and how they plan to improve service delivery.

“Today’s media briefing reports on progress since launch of War on Queues campaign, in April, to improve on waiting time at Home Affairs offices,” said Gigaba.

The statement covered various aspect of the campaign, including the appointment of Dimension Data to assist in assessing the networks of 184 live capture offices.

The live capture offices offer the ability to capture citizens’ information, including photos, for processing.

Dimension Data’s report, however, paints a horrific picture of system downtime.

“The biggest contributor to system downtime is unavailability of power in many offices, wherein uninterrupted power supply and generator failed to switch,” said Gigaba.

“Other problem areas related to the Telkom data line and power management.”

As a result, “system downtime affects offices for an average of 20 days in one month”.

It must also be noted that Home Affairs states on its website it is only open on Monday to Friday each week.