Department of Home Affairs, department of the South African government
The Department of Home Affairs is South Africa's interior ministry, based in Pretoria, and manages identity documents and official status matters for people living in or moving through the country. It handles birth and marriage certificates, national identity cards, passports, visas, asylum cases, and border control at land, sea, and air entry points.
The department was founded in 1910, the same year South Africa was established as a unified state. Over time it grew from a small administrative unit into one of the country's largest government bodies, taking on immigration and border security alongside its original identity functions.
The department is known by a different name in each of South Africa's 11 official languages, from Afrikaans to Zulu. This variety of names reflects how closely tied the institution is to the daily lives of communities across the country.
The office is in the Hallmark Building in central Pretoria, near the corner of Johannes Ramokhoase and Thabo Sehume Street, and is straightforward to reach on foot from most city centre points. Queues can be long, so arriving early in the day and bringing all required documents is strongly advisable.
The department maintains the National Population Register, a database that records every birth, marriage, and death across the country. This makes it one of the largest personal records systems on the African continent.
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