Good news for Smart IDs in South Africa

 ·18 Sep 2024

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber says the next phase of the Smart ID rollout will allow naturalised citizens to apply for the card, followed by permanent residence permit holders.

Both these categories of residents in South Africa have previously been unable to apply for Smart IDs, creating a major stumbling block in the DHA’s plans to modernise the ID system in the country.

Until earlier this year, the Smart ID was only available to born citizens.

As a result, naturalised citizens or permanent residents who had lost, stolen, or damaged green ID books could visit only a handful of offices that still support the issuing of the older document.

In addition, naturalised citizens and permanent residents could not use the Home Affairs online booking system, eHomeAffairs, to apply for passports.

In August, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) started allowing naturalised citizens to apply for smart ID cards, following a pilot programme running since December 2023.

Schreiber announced that the system was gradually being phased in for naturalised citizens, with close to 700 applications being processed at the time. Reports indicated that it was by invitation only, however.

Responding to a parliamentary Q&A this past week, the minister said that opening the system to naturalised citizens is part of the second phase of the Smart ID rollout and that permanent residents would soon also be able to apply for the cards.

However, he did not give specific timelines for the rollout of this phase.

“The Department used a phased approach (for the Smart IDs) which focused primarily on persons who are citizens by birth. The second phase will focus on other categories of citizens, e.g., naturalized citizens, followed by permanent residence permit holders,” he said.

Permanent Residents will be eligible to apply for Smart ID Cards after the Naturalised Citizens have been included in the process flow of issuance of Cards—this would have proven system stability and capability to verify such applications.”

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) introduced smart ID cards in July 2013 with the intention of phasing out green ID booklets from 2018 to 2022.

However, only 21 million Smart IDs had been issued by the end of 2023.

This means that 42 million people in South Africa would still need to be processed. This would require around 14 million Smart IDs to be issued each year over three years to meet the lofty target (not factoring in various variables like migration, births, deaths, etc).

According to the DHA, it issued 2.6 million smart ID cards against a target of 2.2 million in the 2022/23 financial year.

The new administration delivered the latest budget vote for the department in July. It said it was aiming for 2.5 million smart ID cards to be issued during the 2024/25 financial year.

The Department of Home Affairs took a decision to modernise most of its enabling documents by introducing the Live Capture System in 2013. The intention was to replace the Green Barcoded ID book with the more secure Smart ID Card.

Schreiber has committed to a broader digital-first strategy for the DHA, moving to modernise its systems to be more in-line with tech-forward institutions like SARS.


Read: Goodbye to stepping foot in Home Affairs in South Africa

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