Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber says digital reforms have reduced system downtime by 61%, improving service delivery and cutting thousands of hours previously lost to technical failures at offices
Home Affairs offices across South Africa recorded a 61% reduction in system downtime during the 2025/26 financial year, with government attributing the improvement to a series of digital reforms aimed at modernising the department’s technology infrastructure and improving service delivery.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber announced on Monday that incidents where offices were unable to operate due to "system offline" failures had dropped significantly over the past year, marking what he described as another milestone in the department’s digital transformation programme.
According to the department, total working hours lost to system downtime fell from 35,426 hours in the 2024/25 financial year to 13,867 hours in 2025/26.
The improvement follows targeted interventions that included upgrading network infrastructure, modernising front-office applications, replacing outdated equipment and removing single points of failure that previously caused prolonged service disruptions.
