Operating hours at home affairs offices will be extended to 6.30pm on Monday after the department’s systems went offline nationwide on Friday.

“The department of home affairs wishes to inform members of the public that services at the department have been restored. The department and the State IT Agency have been able to fix the cable breakage that impacted service delivery on Friday,” said the department in a statement.

Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi instructed the department to extend Monday’s operating hours to ensure that all clients that visited the offices on Friday are served.

According to Motsoaledi, the department owes it to the public to extend operating hours to compensate for the unfortunate network failure incident. Branches will stay open until 6.30pm, and everyone who is in a branch by this time will be assisted.

“The department appreciates the patience of the public on Friday and apologises for the inconvenience caused by the unfortunate network failure.”