What is DHA Downtime? 

Familiar to all South Africans, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is South Africa’s governmental department in charge of the nation’s civil registry, identity and passport documents, immigration, and more. 

The DHA oversees South Africa’s Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS), a database of all South African citizens’ personal identity information. This includes identity numbers, vital status, photos, marriage status, etc. All “real-time” identity verification services in South Africa reference HANIS in order to verify an individual’s identity. 

However, HANIS has proven unreliable and is prone to “downtime”. In short, DHA downtime is when the DHA’s HANIS servers fail and go offline. For this period, any ID verification services that pull data from the DHA in real-time cannot function. This can disrupt the workflows of businesses and institutions by making it impossible to verify customer ID numbers. 

However, higher-end ID verification service providers offer services that can function perfectly, even during DHA downtime. 

How can you protect against DHA downtime? 

As a business, the only way to protect against DHA downtime is to partner with a provider of ID verification service provider that offers services that can function when the DHA is offline. 

These services are commonly known as “offline services” or “automatic failover services”. They work by using cached identity information to verify identities, even when the DHA is offline. 

These services are so valuable because they enable businesses to continue operating like normal, even during extended periods of DHA downtime. This capacity saves businesses time and money and empowers them to deliver a consistently high-quality customer experience that is not disrupted by DAH downtime. 

ID Verification Services for DHA Downtime

ThisIsMe offers two high-quality DHA offline services that enable your business to defeat DHA downtime: 

• ID Check AlwaysOn: ID Check AlwaysOn is an automatic failover ID verification service that guarantees an uninterrupted ID verification solution, even in the event of the DHA downtime. When the DHA is functioning normally, the service performs real-time identity verification using data pulled directly from the DHA’s HANIS database. In the event of DHA downtime, the service automatically switches over and begins verifying identities by cross-referencing ID numbers against cached data. Real-time verifications resume the moment the DHA comes back online. This seamless transition ensures that identity checks are always completed, even in the face of system disruptions.
• ID Check On File: ID Check OnFile is a non-real-time ONLY service designed as a backup identity verification service for when the DHA is offline – it will never pull real-time data from the DHA’s HANIS database. The service functions by cross-referencing a South African ID number against hosted credit bureaux data to verify an individual’s identity, ensuring that ID verifications can always be accurately completed. 

To request a demo and see our DHA offline services in action, simply email sales@thisisme.com or click here.