Home Affairs handles birth, marriage and death registration, identity documents, passports, citizenship, visas and permits.
Book online where the service allows it. Smart ID cards and passports can be applied for online and collected at participating bank branches, which is consistently faster than queueing at an office.
Nobody may charge you to jump a queue, and no official may take cash outside the cashier. Fees are gazetted, paid at the office and receipted. A runner offering to speed up an application is committing fraud, and so is the official who accepts it.
This page covers how to contact the Department of Home Affairs in South Africa. The details below were taken from the official Department of Home Affairs contact page rather than from any third-party directory.
ContactDetails.co.za is an independent directory. We are not the Department of Home Affairs and cannot act on your behalf. Everything on this page is a routing aid so you reach the right official channel quickly.
The Department of Home Affairs contact numbers
These routes were verified against the official Department of Home Affairs contact page on 22 August 2026. Contact numbers do change, so confirm on the official page before relying on one for anything urgent.
| What it is for | Contact |
|---|---|
| National contact centre, toll free | 0800 60 11 90 |
| Eastern Cape provincial office, King William's Town | 043 604 6433 |
| Free State provincial office, Bloemfontein | 051 410 3901 |
| Gauteng provincial office, Braamfontein | 011 242 9002 |
| KwaZulu-Natal provincial office, Pietermaritzburg | 033 845 5038 |
| Limpopo provincial office | 015 287 2830 |
| Northern Cape provincial office, Kimberley | 053 807 6700 |
| North West provincial office | 018 397 9910 |
| Presidential Hotline | 17737 |
We publish the departmental office numbers only. Home Affairs lists named officials with personal mobile numbers on its own website; we do not republish individuals’ direct or mobile numbers, so those do not appear here. The national contact centre is the route for a service query, and it can escalate to a province.
Self-service options before you call
- Check the official site at dha.gov.za, which carries the current contact details and any online enquiry form.
- Calling outside peak times. Monday mornings and the hour after 17:00 are usually the worst for South African contact centres.
What to have ready before you call
- A clear one line summary of what you need resolved.
- Your account, order or reference number if you already have one.
- The identity document or account holder details, since most South African providers verify who you are before discussing an account.
- Dates, amounts and any error message exactly as it appeared.
- A pen and paper for the reference number. Ask for one every time, because without it a follow up call starts from nothing.
Smart ID cards and passports
- Apply online where you can. Online application with collection at a participating bank branch is consistently faster than queueing at an office, and it is available for both smart ID cards and passports.
- Not every office has live capture. The equipment needed for a smart ID card or passport is not at every branch, so confirm before travelling.
- Bring the original documents, not only copies. Originals must be produced, and a certification older than three months is commonly refused. Certification is free at a police station or a commissioner of oaths.
- Fees are gazetted, paid at the office and receipted. No official may take cash outside the cashier, and nobody may charge you to jump a queue.
- Collection is in person. A smart ID card or passport is collected by the applicant, with fingerprint verification, and cannot be collected by someone else on your behalf.
A green barcoded identity book remains valid until the state announces otherwise, but the smart ID card is the current document and replacements are issued in that form.
Complaints and escalation
If a first call does not resolve the matter, escalate through the office’s own service or complaints channel first, keeping every reference number, then the provincial office and then the national department. If it stays unresolved, the Presidential Hotline on 17737 is the national government’s own complaints line, and the Public Protector investigates undue delay and maladministration in state administration free of charge.
Keep a short written log of each contact: the date, the channel you used, the name of the agent and the reference number. Most government service complaint processes ask for exactly that history, and having it ready is usually the difference between a fast resolution and starting over.
Avoiding fake Department of Home Affairs contact numbers
Contact details for well known South African brands are a common target for impersonation. Numbers that look official appear in search ads, social media replies and cloned websites, and the person answering is not the Department of Home Affairs.
- Reach Department of Home Affairs through the official site at dha.gov.za rather than through a number in a search advert or a social media reply.
- The Department of Home Affairs will never ask you for your full card number, PIN, CVV, online banking password or a one time PIN. Nobody legitimate needs those to help you.
- Treat any caller who creates urgency, asks you to install remote access software, or asks you to move money to a safe account as fraudulent, and end the call.
- If you are unsure whether a call was genuine, hang up and dial the official number yourself rather than calling back a number the caller gave you.
Related contact pages
Frequently asked questions
What is the Department of Home Affairs contact number?
The routes are listed in the table above, with what each one is for. The main route is 0800 60 11 90. Confirm it on dha.gov.za before relying on it, since numbers are changed from time to time.
How do I know a Department of Home Affairs number is genuine?
Check it against the official site at dha.gov.za. A number that only appears in a search advert, a social media reply or a third-party directory should not be trusted for anything involving your account, your money or your identity document.
What should I do if nobody resolves my query?
Ask for the complaint reference and the escalation path on your first call, then follow the escalation route described above. Keep the dates, agent names and reference numbers, because every formal complaint process will ask for them.
Can ContactDetails.co.za resolve this for me?
No. We are an independent directory, not the Department of Home Affairs, and we have no access to your account. Everything here is a routing aid so that you reach the correct official channel with the right information in hand.
Is there a cost to calling these numbers?
South African 0860 and 0861 numbers are charged at a share-call or standard rate depending on your provider, and 0800 numbers are toll free from a landline. Calls from a mobile are billed at your own operator’s rate, so check your plan if cost matters.
Contact routes on this page were checked against the official Department of Home Affairs source on 22 August 2026. If you find a detail that has changed, the official source is always the authority.