Speaking at a Governance and Administration Cluster briefing yesterday, department minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said the system is one of the department’s major achievements. "We're not saying the system is perfect but we do believe it will reduce the long queues at Home Affairs Departments ... and we're hoping that by the end of the year citizens will be able to report some form of satisfaction,” she commented.
The system is also expected to have a positive effect on service delivery. It is designed to be able to trace, and if necessary speed up, the progress of an application for an ID document from the moment it is lodged in the system until it is delivered to the applicant.
People who have applied for South African IDs after 9 February this year are able to track the progress of their application by sending an SMS with the letters “ID”, a space, and then their ID number to 32551 at the cost of R1.
The project seeks to promote the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by citizens and the public service, to deliver government services more effectively and efficiently.
Source: BuaNews
