The Home Affairs system operates on a network speed of two megabytes, which is considerably slower than most cellphone systems. This was revealed by the department’s Western Cape Manager, Yusuf Simons.

He was responding to irate citizens that have told Radio 786 of their months’ long wait for service from Home Affairs. The elderly have to endure long queues and are not guaranteed that they will be served.

Simons says that the Home Affairs system was down for three hours yesterday. He has admitted that the State Information Technology Agency is affecting their ability to provide efficient services to the public. Cabinet has since approved a faster network speed. But it appears that there is still a long way to go before the service is improved.