Eswatini’s Ministry of the Interior has announced the immediate resumption of national identity card production following a prolonged computer system failure that disrupted services for several months and left thousands of applicants without official documents.
The ministry said on Monday that technicians had successfully fixed the technical fault that had halted ID card processing across the country since the end of last year, creating significant backlogs at major service centres.
The outage affected both first-time applications and renewals or reissuance of identity cards, forcing many citizens to make repeated visits to registration offices without receiving updates on their applications.
Authorities said the disruption also slowed down essential verification processes used by schools, banks and social service institutions, all of which rely on national identity cards for enrolment and administrative procedures.
In a statement, the Ministry of the Interior expressed regret over the inconvenience caused and thanked technical teams and stakeholders involved in restoring the system.
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“The Ministry of the Interior is pleased to announce the immediate resumption of identity card production services,” the statement said.
Citizens who submitted applications during the outage have been urged to check the status of their documents or collect completed IDs from the centres where they initially applied. New applicants have also been encouraged to resume normal application procedures at service centres nationwide.
ID issuance services have now resumed at centres in Pigg’s Peak, Mbabane, Manzini, Mankayane, Simunye, Siphofaneni, Matata, Nhlangano and Hluthi.
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The ministry warned that a surge in applications is expected in the coming weeks as authorities work through the accumulated backlog, which could result in long waiting times at service points.
Officials have appealed for patience, assuring the public that staff are working to process applications “diligently and efficiently” as operations return to normal.
The outage highlights ongoing challenges in digital public service delivery in several African countries, where system failures can significantly disrupt access to essential documentation and services.
