Big passport changes coming for South Africa

 ·16 Jan 2025

The Department of Home Affairs says that its plans to digitise and secure South Africa’s passports will see it become an even stronger document on the global stage.

Responding to the latest Henley & Partners passport index, published this week, DHA minister Leon Schreiber lauded South Africa’s strengthened position in the rankings, saying it was just the beginning.

South Africa ranked 48th in the index, its strongest position in over a decade, entering the top 50 in the world for the first time since 2014.

The index evaluates 199 passports against 227 travel destinations, relying on data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA) and extensive supplementary research.

While South Africa’s rise is noteworthy, it is only a relative climb in the index—the improvement comes despite losing visa-free access to Ireland, reducing the total number of accessible destinations.

Schreiber said the relative improvement in the strength of the South African passport is only the beginning, as it coincides with the reform process that is underway at Home Affairs, built around the digital transformation of all Home Affairs processes.

“By fully digitalising and closing off to fraud and manipulation the process to obtain enabling documents – including passports – we will significantly enhance the integrity of our documents,” he said.

The minister noted that the index emphasised the global shift towards digitalising visa processes, which is a critical component of the DHA’s reforms under the Government of National Unity.

The DHA has put forward a plan to digitise the department and put technology at the forefront of its services.

For passports specifically, the targets proposed by Home Affairs for inclusion in the Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP) include the introduction of biometric or “e-Passports”.

These passports feature an embedded microprocessor chip to authenticate the biometric information of all South African travellers.

“Our plans to introduce an e-passport and to digitally secure both document and passport processes for South Africans, as well as visa processes for foreigners, will combine to meaningfully increase the power of our passport over the coming years,” Schreiber said.

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber

New bank branches for passports

In addition to the digitalisation and tech-forward plans, the DHA also hopes to expand its passport services through a widened branch network.

The department has been piloting a satellite branch structure with South Africa’s banks for several years—which is ripe for expansion—that also extended to shopping malls in urban areas and mobile units in more remote areas.

Looking at the bank branch network specifically, there are currently 30 bank branches that offer DHA services for passports and Smart IDs – these are at Absa, Discovery Bank, FNB, Nedbank, Investec and Standard Bank.

There are plans to significantly expand the project with many more branches to follow.

BASA’s prudential head, Mark Brits, said the agreements to expand the service were mostly completed and signed.

FNB plans to add 18 eHome Affairs branches and Absa currently has an additional 12 branches ready for activation.

Discovery Bank also announced that it plans to expand the service by adding four locations in Cape Town, Pretoria, and Durban.

The new Discovery Bank eHome Affairs branches will be in Sea Point, Century City, Pretoria, and Umhlanga.

Nedbank has also confirmed it wants to expand its home affairs services but has not confirmed how many new branches it will add.

If all these plans come to fruition, the number of eHome Affairs bank branches in South Africa will increase from 30 to 64.


Read: South Africa’s passport shoots up 2025 global rankings

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