Newsworthy Numbers That Tell the Home Affairs Story

When Dr Leon Schreiber was appointed Minister of Home Affairs in July 2024, following the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU), he repeatedly heard the Department being referred to as “Hell Affairs”, associated with inefficiency and poor service delivery.

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The challenge was therefore to radically reform the model itself by replacing centralised, physical processes with decentralised, digital access, he said in his address on the vision for the future of government at Constitution Hill on 1 October 2026.

Two-and-a-half years later, the proof is there that public sector organisations can be fixed and radically reformed – within a single term of government, the Minister noted.

The goal is, at the end of the current administration’s term in 2029, to leave behind a Home Affairs that is “unrecognisably better” than the one inherited in 2024, as well as a new vision for the future.

Here are some of the newsworthy numbers that tell the story.

18 months – The time that has passed since the Minister last signed a single submission in paper format, as paperwork has been replaced by digital processes.

When the Minister arrived in office, he faced literally thousands of submissions awaiting his processing, including correspondence relating to countless court cases, visa appeals and waiver applications. Every one of these submissions came as a printed paper file, each running into dozens or hundreds of pages.

515 – Bank branches already offering biometrically-based digital services where South Africans can apply for a replacement Smart ID in just five minutes, without an appointment.*

822 500+ – The count of people who have already used this service.*

1,000+ – The number of bank branches where the service will be available by the end of 2026, compared to 214 departmental locations that offered Smart ID replacements before the GNU.

53 countries and counting -Now live for short-stay visa applications on the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) platform.

24 hours – This is all it takes to process a tourist visa application, compared to weeks before the introduction of the ETA.

144 dismissals, 73 arrests & 10 convictions – Testament to what the Minister describes as the new Home Affairs culture that punishes delinquency, while rewarding progress, innovation and urgency.

60% – This is by how much the Department was under-resourced when the GNU came into power 27 months ago.

*Figures for the six months up to 1 October 2026.

https://www.dha.gov.za/index.php/statements-speeches/2095-keynote-address-by-the-minister-of-home-affairs-dr-leon-schreiber-at-the-home-affairs-quantum-leap-a-vision-for-the-future-of-government-at-constitution-hill

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Newsworthy Numbers That Tell the Home Affairs Story

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