Home Affairs has scrapped plans to re-advertise a failed tender to replace VFS Global after admitting that the process collapsed because of errors in its own bid document, leaving the department to extend the current arrangement while it works on a phased state-run digital visa system.
Behind the tender language is the foreign student, worker, spouse, investor or visitor whose right to remain in South Africa can hang on a VFS receipt while Home Affairs works through delays in the immigration system.
For many applicants, that receipt is not just proof of payment or submission. It can become the paper shield they carry while waiting for the department to decide whether they can legally stay, work, study, run a business or reunite with family in South Africa.
‘Tender will not be revived’
The department has now confirmed that the failed tender to replace VFS Global will not be revived.
“The tender will not be re-advertised,” Home Affairs spokesperson Thulani Mavuso said in a written response to Sunday World.
Invitation-to-bid document ‘had errors’
Asked what caused the collapse of the 2024 tender process and why no bidder qualified, Mavuso said, “The bid was cancelled due to errors that were found in the invitation to bid document.”
The admission means the department is no longer blaming the failures on the market, bidders, or lack of interest. The admission indicates that defects in its own tender document caused the process to fail.
Department considers insourcing
The department said it was now working to “insource” visa processing through the Electronic Travel Authorisation system, known as ETA.
“The department is actively working to ‘insource’ the full visa processing value chain through the phased rollout of the electronic travel authorisation,” Mavuso said.
He said the ETA was “already live for tourist visas from four countries” and had introduced “a digital and machine learning-based application and processing channel that eliminates the need for any intermediary”.
Mavuso said the plan had also been communicated to VFS Global.
“Its phased rollout has been communicated to the current service provider,” he said.
“Over time and as additional countries and visa categories are added, application volumes through the ETA will grow to the point of becoming the sole entry point for all visa applications to South Africa.”
Current VFS arrangement in place
But the response leaves the current VFS arrangement in place while the department moves from one model to another.
Asked on what legal basis Home Affairs was continuing to rely on “unavoidable” extensions of the VFS contract, potentially up to 2027, Mavuso said, “The expansion and variation of contracts are allowable in terms of National Treasury PFMA SCM circular no. 03 of 2021/22.”
He did not provide the value of the extension, the exact expiry date of the current arrangement, or a full timeline for when the ETA system would cover all visa categories.
Asked for a concrete timeline to appoint a new service provider or move away from the VFS model, Mavuso said only, “The Department is working to insource this function.”
He referred Sunday World back to the department’s ETA answer.
ETA system
The department’s position marks a major shift in the long-running VFS question. Instead of appointing a new private visa-processing service provider through a fresh tender, Home Affairs now says it wants to move the function inside the state through technology.
That puts the ETA system at the center of the department’s immigration future.
The system has been promoted by the government as a digital platform that can receive applications, verify travel documents, capture biometrics, and reduce manual processing.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber has also placed digitisation at the centre of the department’s reform agenda, saying the visa system must become faster, more secure, and more useful for tourism and investment.
But the immediate question is what happens before that future arrives.
‘Stronger oversight’
The department was asked how it was managing legal and operational risks, given that VFS receipts are now effectively the only proof of legal stay for some applicants caught in delays.
Mavuso said the department had “strengthened oversight and monitoring mechanisms to manage legal and operational risks.”
“Over the medium term, the implementation of the ETA system will significantly reduce reliance on VFS and reduce associated issues,” he said.
New digitisation tender
The department also moved to separate the VFS issue from a new digitisation tender known as DHA03-2026.
Asked whether that tender was the long-term solution to replace VFS, Mavuso said: “No.”
“The purpose of DHA03-2026 is to source a service provider that can take over the project to digitise the records in the department, as the contract of the current service provider, Phetogo JV, for the digitisation of records is ending on 31 July 2026,” he said.
“DHA03-2026 has nothing to do with VFS.”
The response means Home Affairs is running two different digital tracks. One involves the digitisation of departmental records. The other involves the ETA system that is expected to reduce and eventually remove the need for VFS in visa processing.
The department’s reliance on VFS has been controversial for years.
In March 2024, Home Affairs defended extensions of the VFS contract and said the services provided by the company could not be abruptly disrupted because this would result in “chaos and economic collapse”.
At the time, the department said the auditor-general had recommended that the VFS arrangement should be treated as a public-private partnership because the government was not paying VFS directly and the company charged applicants for services.
The department also said previous efforts to comply with the Auditor-General’s recommendation had failed after attempts to appoint a transaction adviser came to nothing.
Now, more than two years later, the department says the replacement tender has also collapsed because of errors in the bid document, and no new tender will be advertised.
Limbo arrangement
The result is a limbo arrangement.
VFS remains in the system. Home Affairs says it is moving away from VFS. The replacement tender is dead. The ETA system is being phased in. And applicants still have to navigate a system where a receipt can become the difference between certainty and anxiety.
For Home Affairs, the argument is that the future is digital and state-run.
For applicants, the question is more immediate: whether the department can move quickly enough to prevent the old system from becoming a permanent stopgap.
The unanswered questions are now as important as the answers already given.
Who was responsible for the errors in the invitation-to-bid document? Was anyone held accountable for the collapse of the tender? What is the full value of the VFS extension? When exactly does the current VFS arrangement end? When will ETA cover all countries and all visa categories? And what legal protection exists for applicants whose immigration status depends on proof that their applications are still trapped in the system?
For now, Home Affairs says the answer is insourcing.
“The department is actively working to ‘insource’ the full visa processing value chain,” Mavuso said.
But until that value chain is fully inside the department, VFS remains the bridge between the old immigration system and the digital one Home Affairs says is coming.
- Home Affairs cancelled the 2024 tender to replace VFS Global due to errors in its own bid document and will not re-advertise it, opting instead to extend the current VFS contract.
- The department is transitioning to insource visa processing via a phased rollout of the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system, which currently covers tourist visas from four countries.
- Despite the planned digital shift, VFS remains the primary intermediary for visa applicants, whose VFS receipts serve as critical proof of legal stay amid processing delays.
- A separate digitisation tender (DHA03-2026) aims to digitise departmental records but is unrelated to the visa processing system or VFS replacement.
- Key details remain unclear, including accountability for tender errors, extension costs, exact timelines for ending VFS reliance, and full ETA implementation across all visa categories.
Home Affairs has scrapped plans to re-advertise a failed tender to replace VFS Global after admitting that the process collapsed because of errors in its own bid document, leaving the department to extend the current arrangement while it works on a phased state-run digital visa system.
For many applicants, that receipt is not just proof of payment or submission. It can become the paper shield they carry while waiting for the department to decide whether they can legally stay, work, study, run a business or reunite with family in
“
Asked what caused the collapse of the 2024 tender process and why no bidder qualified, Mavuso said, "
“
He said the ETA was “already live for tourist visas from four countries” and had introduced “a digital and machine learning-based application and processing channel that eliminates the need for any intermediary”.
Mavuso said the plan had also been communicated to VFS Global.
“Its phased rollout has been communicated to the current service provider,” he said.
“Over time and as additional countries and visa categories are added, application volumes through the ETA will grow to the point of becoming the sole entry point for all visa applications to
But the response leaves the current VFS arrangement in place while the department moves from one model to another.
Asked on what legal basis Home Affairs was continuing to rely on “unavoidable” extensions of the VFS contract, potentially up to 2027, Mavuso said, "
He did not provide the value of the extension, the exact expiry date of the current arrangement, or a full timeline for when the ETA system would cover all visa categories.
Asked for a concrete timeline to appoint a new service provider or move away from the VFS model, Mavuso said only, "
He referred
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber has also placed digitisation at the centre of the department’s reform agenda, saying the visa system must become faster, more secure, and more useful for tourism and investment.
But the immediate question is what happens before that future arrives.
Mavuso said the department had “strengthened oversight and monitoring mechanisms to manage legal and operational risks.”
“Over the medium term, the implementation of the ETA system will significantly reduce reliance on VFS and reduce associated issues,” he said.
Asked whether that tender was the long-term solution to replace VFS, Mavuso said: “No.”
“
“DHA03-2026 has nothing to do with VFS.”
In March 2024, Home Affairs defended extensions of the VFS contract and said the services provided by the company could not be abruptly disrupted because this would result in “chaos and economic collapse”.
At the time, the department said the auditor-general had recommended that the VFS arrangement should be treated as a public-private partnership because the government was not paying VFS directly and the company charged applicants for services.
Now, more than two years later, the department says the replacement tender has also collapsed because of errors in the bid document, and no new tender will be advertised.
VFS remains in the system. Home Affairs says it is moving away from VFS.
For Home Affairs, the argument is that the future is digital and state-run.
For applicants, the question is more immediate: whether the department can move quickly enough to prevent the old system from becoming a permanent stopgap.
Who was responsible for the errors in the invitation-to-bid document? Was anyone held accountable for the collapse of the tender? What is the full value of the VFS extension? When exactly does the current VFS arrangement end? When will ETA cover all countries and all visa categories?
For now, Home Affairs says the answer is insourcing.
“
But until that value chain is fully inside the department, VFS remains the bridge between the old immigration system and the digital one Home Affairs says is coming.
