Several E-Home Affairs branches in South Africa let banking customers get their smart ID card or passport without having to stand in the winding queues or face the infamous ” system is offline” issue at conventional Department of Home Affairs (DHA) branches.
DA MP Adrian Roos recently revealed the root cause of downtime at Home Affairs branches. Roos said that only 35 out of 691 Home Affairs branches had backup links, while Home Affairs was the only government department without dual communication links to all its offices.
“This means that if one form of the network goes down, then the system cannot be accessed,” Roos said. Home Affairs centres in bank branches don’t have this problem.
To use E-Home Affairs, you must register a profile on the website, provide supporting documentation, and make a payment via your bank.
Once this is done, you can make a booking to visit your chosen branch and capture biometrics, such as a photo, your fingerprints, and your signature. When your smart ID or passport is ready, you will be notified to collect it at the branch.
Six major banks in South Africa offer this service — Absa, FNB, Discovery Bank, Investec Bank, Nedbank, and Standard Bank.
Capitec has said that it simply doesn’t have room for Home Affairs inside its branches, as they were designed from the beginning to be as compact and efficient as possible. This allows the bank to avoid unnecessary expenses and keep its transaction fees low, it said.
Several banks previously told MyBroadband that many more of their branches would support E-Home Affairs services in 2020.
At the start of last year, 16 branches were offering the service, with plans to add at least 19 more branches between Absa, Nedbank, and Standard Bank in that year alone.
FNB also said it would provide the service at more branches, but did not provide details on how many.
Based on the most recent list of participating banks on the DHA’s website, the Covid-19 pandemic scuppered these plans.
At the time of publication, there were only 25 branches that supported the service, at least ten fewer than the planned 35.
A closer look at these branches also revealed their potential reach was quite limited.
Of the 25 branches, 16 were located in Gauteng, and five of these were concentrated in Sandton.
Capetonians have four branches available, while residents of Port Elizabeth has two options.
There are still no branches that offer the service in the Free State, North West, or Northern Cape, and only one each in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo.
The good news for those far away from any of these branches is that the DHA plans to add a further 43 sites in the near future.
The table below shows the 25 confirmed bank branches that offer smart ID and passport services, with their listed addresses and contact numbers.
| Bank | Address | Contact number |
| Absa | ||
| Absa Centurion Lifestyle Centre | C/o Lenchen and Old Johannesburg Road Centurion Lifestyle Centre Centurion |
012 681 0240 |
| Absa Greenacres – Port Elizabeth | Shop 94 Greenacres Shopping Centre 1 Ring Rd Greenacres Port Elizabeth |
041 396 5748 |
| Absa Key West Krugersdorp | Shop 80 Key West Shopping Centre C/o Paardekraal Drive and Viljoen Street Krugersdorp |
011 273 9500 |
| Absa Sandton City | C/o Rivonia road and 5th Street Sandton |
011 505 4554 |
| Absa Towers JHB | 160 Main Street Johannesburg CBD |
011 350 4000 |
| FNB | ||
| FNB Burgersfort | Shop 55 Twin City Complex Dirk Winterbach Street Burgersfort |
072 457 8619 |
| FNB Centurion Lifestyle Centre | Cnr Lenchen and Old Johannesburg Rd Centurion Lifestyle Centre Centurion |
012 653 2661 |
| FNB Menlyn | Shop 4 Upper level Cnr Simon Vermooten & Lynnwood Rd Equestria Pretoria |
012 368 9200 |
| FNB Merchant Place | 4 Merchant Place C/o Rivonia and Freedman Dr Sandton |
011 639 4204 |
| FNB Portside | 5 Buitengracht St Portside Building Cape Town |
087 345 3900 |
| Discovery Bank | ||
| Discovery Bank Head Office | 1 Discovery Place C/o Rivonia Road and Katherine Street Sandton |
0860 998 877 |
| Investec Bank | ||
| Investec Bank Sandown | 100 Grayston Dr Sandown Sandton |
011 286 7000 |
| Nedbank | ||
| Nedbank Arcadia | cnr Steve Biko & Madiba St Arcadia Pretoria |
012 301 0600 |
| Nedbank Constantia Kloof | 18 Constantia Boulevard Constantia Kloof Roodepoort |
011 639 4207 |
| Nedbank Nelspruit Crossing Shopping Centre | Shop 65 The Crossing Shopping Centre C/o Samora Machel and Madiba Drive Nelspruit |
010 235 3281 |
| Nedbank Sandown | C/o Rivonia Rd and Maude Street Shop L05 Block I Lower Ground Sandown Sandton |
011 639 4210 |
| Nedbank St George’s Mall | Shop 3 Atterbury House St Georges Mall Long Market St Cape Town |
021 416 5000 |
| Standard Bank | ||
| Standard Bank Centurion | C/o Hendrik Verwoerd and South Street Centurion |
012 674 1414 |
| Standard Bank Killarney Mall | 60 Rivera Rd Killarney Mall Houghton Johannesburg |
011 351 7814 |
| Standard Bank Kingsmead | Standard Bank Centre 1 Kingsmead Way Stamford Hill Durban |
031 374 1933 |
| Standard Bank Jubilee Mall | Shop no. 47 Jubilee Mall corner Jubliee and Harry Gwala Road Temba Hammanskraal |
012 727 9021 |
| Standard Bank Simmonds Street | 5 Simmonds Street Johannesburg CBD |
011 639 4205/1624 |
| Standard Bank Canal Walk | Shop 599 Upper level Canal Walk Shopping Centre Century City Milnerton Cape Town |
021 529 8216 |
| Standard Bank Promenade Mall | Road Shop 73-75 Promenade Mall Beacon Valley Corner AZ Berman Road and Morgenster Street Mitchells Plein Cape Town |
021 401 3396 |
| Standard Bank Newton Park | 1 Pickering St Newton Park Port Elizabeth |
041 391 2134
|
Source: mybroadband
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