Home Affairs robbing people

So my mother went to home affairs (tzaneen) to get her smart card ID on the 16 April 2019 . She went through the whole process and even paid the R140.00 that is expected, weeks passed without any info about her smart card, she then went to today and they told her that thier machines were not processing that day so she has to come and do the whole process again and even pay that R140.00. Why didn't they tell on that day that thier machines were not processing, they gave her slips and everything but they failed to tell that her application was going through. Is this right, do they even have a right to do that