August 2025

• Meeting with DHA Chief of Staff

• Meeting with VFS Global – open lines of communication to resolve issues for South Africans abroad (UK, Australia, New Zealand with Dubai and other locations to follow)

• Continue raising individual cases that are long overdue, complex or emergency situations with senior DHA officials for resolution.

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April 2025

• Engaged with the Home Affairs Chief of Staff to highlight:

  • High volume of issues with accessing appointments.

  • Long overdue applications.

  • Lack of communication.

  • Longstanding overstay ban appeals.

  • Numerous other unresolved complex cases.

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October 2024​​

• Following email communication with DHA in August regarding VFS Global, a comprehensive email highlighting consular issues abroad was submitted in September.

• The Minister's assistant acknowledged receipt and said issues would be tabled, but no further correspondence was received.

• With support from the Electoral Reform Consultation Panel chairperson, DHA’s spokesperson contacted us.

• Previous emails were forwarded to the spokesperson, and a request was made for a webinar with the Minister.

• Launched the Overseas Voting Survey, to be presented to the IEC’s Electoral Reform Committee by 31 October

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August 2024​

• Engaged directly with senior officials from the Department of Home Affairs (DHA).

• Highlighted issues with VFS Global in the UK, including:

  • Inability to book appointments.

  • Inability to enter expired passport dates on the appointment platform.

  • Long waiting periods, fingerprint rejections, and poor communication.

  • DHA requested a technical report from VFS and will arrange a meeting with them.

  • UK is being used as a pilot project for potential rollout of VFS Global to other countries.

• Raised concerns about poor consular services at foreign missions.

• Engagement aims to build stronger relationships with DHA & DIRCO to improve consular services for 1+ million citizens abroad.