Question NW2539 to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
06 January 2022 - NW2539
Breytenbach, Adv G to ask the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
What are the details of the steps his Department will take to attend to the intolerable backlog of matters at the Master’s Offices, which has been worsened by the recent ransomware attack on his Department’s Information and Communication Technology systems?
Reply:
It is difficult to ascertain the exact backlog, as many of the clients are walk-in clients who could not be assisted during the system downtime, but have now been flocking to the offices since the system was restored.
All staff is 100% back in the offices, in line with Adjusted Alert level 1 regulations.
Officials are doing their utmost to assist as many applicants as possible in the time available and also need to deal with applications which were received via post and courier during the downtime period as well as still received on a daily basis.
After the system restoration the Guardian’s Fund continued with the payment of recurring maintenance.
The fingerprint verification link with Home Affairs was also off for some time, even after
the department’s systems were restored. Due to the biometric fingerprint facility (MOVIT) being unavailable, first time and final inheritance could however only be processed again from the 15th of November, when the new finger print verification server was restored. These payments could not be made earlier due to the inherent risk of fraud and to protect the interests of the beneficiaries for whom we hold funds.
Officials are working tirelessly to catch up on the backlog created and the new fingerprint verification has so far been deployed to 6 Master’s offices across the country.
The further rollout is currently a priority and should be restored to all Masters offices soon.
Overtime has been approved for all offices in a bid to address the backlogs and offices are doing their utmost in the period to ease the pressure and rendering services to those in need.
Overtime has been approved until 20 December 2021 after which a further assessment
will be made. However, it is envisaged, and offices are encouraged to ensure, that the
backlog is drastically reduced by then. Offices are however still experiencing some
technical difficulties on the systems from time-to-time which slows down performance in
our offices. Master’s Offices are open throughout the year, except on weekends and
public holidays – they do not close.
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