Plan to eliminate green ID books in South Africa
The Department of Home Affairs says that getting rid of the barcoded green ID book in South Africa will go a long way to preventing fraud and corruption in the country, and it is actively working to eliminate it.
Presenting to the portfolio committee on Home Affairs on Tuesday (29 October), Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Njabulo Nzuza stressed the importance of making the department a ‘digital office’ to root out fraud and corruption.
The presentation centred around the many cases of fraudulent activity at the department, particularly around the unlawful attainment of South African citizenship, which has undermined the integrity of the country’s enabling documents like IDs.
“Because corruption is such an ever-changing and advancing phenomenon, the Department has strengthened its counter-corruption programme and bolstered the capacity of the counter-corruption unit a bit. Criminals never rest, and neither should we,” it said.
On top of adopting a zero-tolerance approach and bolstering its counter-corruption and anti-fraud expertise, the department said that the push into digitisation will have a massively positive impact.
Nzuza told the committee that the biggest part of building a ‘digital Home Affairs’ is getting rid of paper records, and that a digitalisation process was initiated under the previous administration which is yielding results.
Millions of paper records have already been digitised, he said – but the green barcoded ID book remains a problem.
“We have to eliminate the green barcoded ID,” he said. “As soon as we do that, then we can move into the digital. We are working on those things.”
With fraudsters having easy access to paper documents, it costs the states millions, if not billions, of rands when systems are manipulated.
“As we try to improve systems, criminals also improve. We have to stay a step head,” he said.
This is why the department is pushing for a faster rollout of Smart IDs in the country, alongside easier access to other Home Affairs services like passport applications and easier reissuing of important documents.
The DHA said that part of its plans to eradicate the green ID books is to boost these services.
Of the 323 brick-and-mortar Home Affairs offices in the country, only 208 have live capture capabilities for smart IDs and passports. The department has launched 227 mobile units with the same capabilities to extend these services to other areas of the country.
It is also working on other ways to fast-track the rollout, with over 30 bank branches able to provide the services—and more on the way—alongside partnerships and expansions into shopping malls.
The goal is to issue 2.5 million smart ID cards this financial year.
The department said that digital transformation is key to the whole matter, using apps and technology so that clients don’t have to go to home affairs offices at all.
This has been one of the key launching points for new DHA minister Leon Schreiber, who has put forward a new five-year strategic vision to transform Home Affairs into a digital-first department during the 2024-2029 term of office.
Looking ahead, the department said that it is currently investigating the rollout of ATM-like kiosks that will enable self-service re-issuance of documents.
And once “all is well” at the department, with systems running smoothly, it will consider a “premium service”, where “things can be handled in a shorter-period of time”, presumably at a higher cost.
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