No ID, no vote: Home Affairs opens offices 07:00 to 21:00 on Election Day

Home Affairs has told voters that a photograph or a copy of an identity document will not be accepted at a voting station, and that only the correct identity document will do.

The department’s warning, posted on its official X account, comes with a practical offer: its offices will be open from 07:00 to 21:00 to help people apply for and collect their documents. No bookings are required on Election Day.

“Apply. Collect. Be Ready,” the department’s post reads.

The message is aimed at voters who arrive at a polling station with a phone photograph of an ID, or a photocopy, and expect to cast a ballot. According to the department, neither will be accepted.

The extended hours are the part that matters most for anyone still waiting on a document. Home Affairs has not said in the post how many offices will run the longer schedule, or whether the 07:00 to 21:00 window applies at every office in the country.

What the department has made clear is the sequence it wants voters to follow: apply for the document, collect it, and do both before election day rather than at the voting station.

Voters who are unsure of their position should treat the department’s own post as the reference point, and should not assume that a copy stored on a phone will be accepted.