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The Department of Home Affairs’ eHomeAffairs platform for booking smart ID and passport applications at bank branches across South Africa offers a convenient alternative to queueing at Home Affairs branches.
However, there is a challenge: the service has been frequently unavailable recently, creating uncertainty around booking application slots using the platform. Most recently, it was unavailable for two consecutive days last week.
MyBroadband asked Home Affairs about the recent downtime and what was causing it, but it hadn’t responded by publication.
Residents frustrated with the downtime and one-time PIN (OTP) system have taken to social media to complain.
“The #eHomeAffairs system is like that one friend who only calls to sell you a pyramid scheme. Annoying!!! If the system ain’t ‘offline’, you wait 365 business days for an OTP,” one user said in a post on Twitter/X.
“At the moment, your eHomeAffairs is down. I cannot log in. Your IT is a challenge,” another user responded to a Twitter/X post from home affairs minister Leon Schreiber.
It should be noted that, regarding the OTP system, Home Affairs has had a notice pinned to its website for several months informing users of a review of the system.
“The eHomeAffairs one-time Pin (OTP) function is currently under review, and the website ehome.dha.gov.za will not be accessible without an OTP,” it says.
However, the eHomeAffairs platform was accessible on Wednesday, 5 March 2025, when MyBroadband tested the system again and found that the OTP system seemed to work.
MyBroadband tested the eHomeAffairs platform for a smart ID application and passport renewal in March 2022, and despite some initial delays caused by the OTP system, the process was pretty seamless.
We booked a slot at the Standard Bank branch at Centurion Lifestyle Centre and made the payment on 16 March 2022. The first available slot was on 31 March.
The renewed passport was ready to collect within six days. However, the production of the smart ID took a good while longer, and we only received the document after 11 April.
Getting a smart ID or renewing your passport at a bank branch
While the eHomeAffairs platform enables South Africans to book slots for certain DHA services at bank branches across the country, you must be a customer of the respective bank to do so.
Home Affairs also notes that no walk-ins are allowed at the bank branches it supports.
“You can only visit a bank branch once you have made an online application and booked your visit,” it says.
South African citizens can begin the process by visiting the eHomeAffairs website and registering a profile. This process requires you to provide personal details like your full name, ID number, date of birth, email address, and phone number.
The latter two pieces of information are only required for verification purposes.
Users can then log into the system, which requires them to enter their credentials and verify the login with an OTP sent to their phone number or email address.
Users will then load into the home page and can start an application by clicking the “Create New Application” button at the top left-hand side of the screen.
What appears next is an application form in which many fields are pre-populated with your details. The system requires you to enter your country of citizenship, birth town, residential and postal address, and the bank branch where you want to book a slot.
Clicking “Submit” will take you to the document submission section of the application. Users must upload a copy of the ID before continuing to the next step: payment.
The payment system requires applicants to enter their banking details on the portal and complete the transaction through their Internet or mobile banking.
However, once users submit their banking details on the portal, they can immediately book a slot at their preferred bank branch. The system doesn’t require the transaction to be completed before doing so.
South Africans currently have 30 DHA-supported bank branches to choose from, and while there are plans to expand the network significantly, the process has faced numerous delays.
The Banking Association of South Africa (Basa) was brought in to facilitate agreements between banks. In a recent update, Basa confirmed to MyBroadband that the public-private partnership agreement was complete.
“Progress has been slow with the Christmas break, but the main agreement has been finalised,” said Basa prudential head Mark Brits.
“We continue to engage on the annexures through the DHA committee structures.”
The table below lists all 30 DHA-supported bank branches in South Africa with their respective addresses.
Province Branch Address Gauteng (17) Absa Centurion Lifestyle Centre C/o Lenchen and Old Johannesburg Rd, Centurion Lifestyle Centre, Centurion Absa Key West Krugersdorp Shop 80, Key West Shopping Centre, c/o Paardekraal Drive and Viljoen Street, Krugersdorp Absa Sandton City C/o Rivonia Road and 5th Street, Sandton Absa Towers C/o Commissioner and Troye Streets, Johannesburg Discovery Bank Head Office 1 Discovery Place, c/o Rivonia Road and Katherine Street, Sandton FNB Centurion Lifestyle Centre C/o Lenchen and Old Johannesburg Rd, Centurion Lifestyle Centre, Centurion FNB Glen Shopping Centre Shop U2, The Glen Shopping Centre, Glenvista FNB Lynnwood Shop L04 Upper-level Cnr Simon Vermooten & Lynnwood Rd Equestria Pretoria FNB Merchant Place 4 Merchant Place c/o Rivonia and Freedman Dr Sandton Investec Bank Sandown 100 Grayston Dr, Sandown, Sandton Nedbank Arcadia Shop 25, Nedbank Plaza, Beatrix Street, Arcadia Nedbank Constantia Kloof 16 Constantia Boulevard Constantia Kloof Roodepoort Nedbank Rivonia 135 Rivonia Road, Sandown, Sandton Standard Bank Centurion Lifestyle Centre C/o Lenchen and Old Johannesburg Rd, Centurion Lifestyle Centre, Centurion Standard Bank Jubilee Mall Shop no. 47 Jubilee Mall corner Jubliee and Harry Gwala Road Temba Hammanskraal Standard Bank Killarney Mall Killarney Mall, Riviera Rd, Killarney, Johannesburg Standard Bank Simmonds Street 5 Simmonds St, Selby, Johannesburg Western Cape (5) Absa Stellenbosch Oude Bloemhof Building, c/o Plein And Ryneveld Streets, Stellenbosch FNB Greenpoint Shop 1 & 2, ERF 176300, Media Quarter, Somerset Road, Greenpoint Nedbank St George’s Mall Shop 3 The Box, St Georges Mall c/o Riebeeck Street Standard Bank Canal Walk Shop 599, Upper Level, Canal Walk Shopping Center, Century Blvd, Century City Nedbank St George’s Mall Standard Bank Mitchell’s Plain Promenade KwaZulu-Natal (3) FNB Cornubia Shop U56, Cornubia Boulevard, Cnr N2 Highway & M41, Durban Nedbank Durban North 57 Adelaide Tambo Dr, Durban North, 4051 Standard Bank Kingsmead 1 Kingsmead Way, Durban Eastern Cape (2) Absa Port Elizabeth 682 c/o Bagshaw & Govan Mbeki Avenue, Gqeberha Standard Bank Newton Park 1 Pickering St, Newton Park, Gqeberha Mpumalanga (1) Nedbank Nelspruit Shop 65, The Crossing Shopping Centre, c/o Samora Machel and Madiba Drive, Nelspruit Limpopo (1) FNB Burgersfort Shop 55, Twin City Complex, Dirk Winterbach Street, Burgersfort Northern Cape (1) Standard Bank Kathu Mall Shop 62, Village Walk Shopping Centre Kathu, Hendrik Van Eck Street, Postmasburg source:Big problem with renewing your smart ID or passport at a bank branch – MyBroadband
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