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The Department of Home Affairs has aligned its operational hours to those of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) for voter registration on 10-11 March 2018 by opening offices from 8h00 to 17h00.

The IEC will accept green barcoded ID books, Smart ID cards as well as Temporary Identity Certificates (TICs) for registration purposes and it is expected that during this period, those who qualify to vote will visit Home Affairs offices to apply for these enabling documents, among others.

Primary services to be rendered include:

• Issuance of temporary identity certificates (TICs);
• Handing over of unclaimed green barcoded IDs and Smart ID cards to applicants;
• Manual verification of Temporary Identity Certificates;
• Resolving challenges pertaining to duplicates, amendments, rectifications and death or alive cases where all supporting documents are provided;
• Collection and processing of first applications for identity documents; and
• Collection and processing of applications for re-issuing of IDs.

It should be noted that the cost for TICs and IDs remains R70.00 and R140.00 respectively. Further to this, TIC and ID applications process have been delinked to ensure that clients may apply for a TIC without necessarily applying for an ID document. Therefore, clients applying for a TIC only should not be forced to apply for an ID document.

Similarly, a client in possession of an acknowledgement of receipt, indicating that an application for the re-issue of an ID was previously submitted and that the application is not yet finalized by the department, may be issued with a Temporary Identification Certificate after paying the prescribed fee.

We wish to reiterate that the number of uncollected IDs at our front offices are very high and this remains a growing  concern. In this regard, a decision has been taken that no identity documents should be returned to Head Office until further notice. This will ensure that applicants will receive their documents immediately.

Issued by Department of Home Affairs