Leon Schreiber Celebrates Home Affairs Clearing 250,000 ID Backlog, South Africans Aren’t Impressed

• The Department of Home Affairs has already cleared a backlog of 250,000 IDs in just two months
• Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said the department is now tackling the issues of visas
• South Africans want the minister to instead focus on deporting all illegal immigrants

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is making giant strides to turn things around.

Home Affairs is often considered one of the worst performing departments, but new minister Dr Leon Schreiber is eager to change that.

Speaking to eNCA, Schreiber celebrated the department’s recent success, saying they cleared an identity document backlog dating back to November 2023.

Home Affairs clears ID backlog

Schreiber explained that the identity document system was now up to date after they cleared a backlog of nearly 250,000.

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He added that this demonstrates they are making progress at Home Affairs in just two months, even if it will take longer to implement all of their plans for the department.

DHA tackles visa applications

With the identity document situation now sorted, the DHA has turned its attention to the visa backlog.

The minister noted that the department has had a backlog of unprocessed visas dating back to 2014. He added that 62% of it has already been cleared. Schreiber said when talking about all they’ve achieved:

“I must really commend the officials that are leading this project for getting this done in the space of about one month."

South Africans aren’t impressed with Home Affairs

While the news made a welcome change from what is usually reported about DHA, some social media users were less than impressed.

@Malumz1128540 asked:

“How many fraudulent IDs are in the so-called backlog?”

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@Patriot_Girll added:

“Wow, so what? Should we throw a party? He must deport illegal immigrants and not play with us."

Darius Beedles:

“They have a backlog but want us to change our bibles.”

Onkabetse Given said:

“I want to know about the Chidimma Adetshina story… Any feedback from the department?”

Bekele Yacob added:

“I have been waiting since 2019. If mine isn't on the list, then this news from DHA is fake news, or something went wrong.”

Mol Mak said:

“Fix the influx of illegal foreigners as urgently as you can.”

Corruption exposed at Department of Home Affairs

Briefly News previously reported on the rampant corruption taking place within the Department of Home Affairs.

Foreign nationals were found to be paying DHA officials to acquire a birth certificate or passport.

A birth certificate was sold for as much as R1 000, while foreign nationals paid as much as R45 000 for a passport.

Source: Briefly News