South Africans are flocking to Home Affairs offices across the country to collect their identity documents in time for Wednesday’s vote.
They are taking advantage of the department’s extended operating hours.
Since Monday, the start of the special votes, Home Affairs offices have been closing at 7 o’clock in the evening.
On Wednesday, the department will open its doors at 7 o’clock in the morning and close at 9 in the evening when voting ends.
Home Affairs Gauteng Acting Operations Manager, Babaza Mxaka, says they wanted to align their operating hours with those of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
Mxaka says the volume of clients officials have been assisting is unusually high across the board.
She says at least 400,000 IDs still need to be collected.
One of the South Africans queuing outside the home affairs offices in Pretoria has complained about the department’s system, saying its slow and keeps crashing.
