Important announcement about Smart IDs in South Africa

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber has announced that 1.4 million naturalised citizens and lawful permanent residents are now eligible to obtain a Smart ID.

The minister said on Sunday (11 May) that these persons will be able to apply for the Smart ID through the e-Home Affairs platform.

However, he noted that the department will first start processing applications from visa-exempt countries, and then expanding to others.

“This is a major milestone on the digital transformation journey of Home Affairs, which continues to deliver and accelerate,” he said.

“It is a victory for social inclusion, as these citizens and lawful residents were previously excluded from the Smart ID and restricted to the vulnerable green ID book.”

While the department had previously opened up Smart ID processing for these categories, technology and system issues brought it to a halt.

Certain residents and citizens were able to get Smart IDs on an invite-only basis, but all the processing had to be done manually.

“This has been a source of massive frustration for these people, because they haven’t been able to get the Smart ID,” Schreiber said.

“They also haven’t been able to use e-Home Affairs and have only been able to go to certain Home Affairs offices to get their ID documents.”

However, he said that this has now changed.

“They can now get the same secure ID document as all other people who are eligible. They can go to any Home Affairs office and get the Smart ID. They can use e-Home Affairs like everyone else,” the minister said.

The minister previously acknowledged the issues surrounding permanent residents and naturalised citizens’ access to Smart IDs and committed to ensuring that all eligible people have access by the end of the year.

With the Sunday announcement, it appears as if the department is ahead of schedule.

Goodbye Green ID Book

Schreiber said that opening the Smart ID process to permanent residents and naturalised is a “victory for national security”, as it wilk make the country less reliant on the insecure green ID book.

The department has set big goals as part of its ambitions to bid the green ID book farewell, setting a target of discontinuing the issuance of the old document over the medium term.

This was laid out in the department’s Strategic Plan through to 2030.

The plan lays out the DHA’s goals for the medium term—i.e., the next three financial years ending March 2029—as well as its immediate plans for the year ahead.

The department stated its goal of having universal enrollment in the country’s smart ID system by the end of 2029, with plans to discontinue the issuance of green ID books in the mid-term (circa 2027).

The DHA noted that green barcoded IDs are still being issued at “non-modernised” offices. The aim is to modernise more offices and ramp up the issuance of Smart IDs instead.

The department also wants to rapidly expand the places where eligible persons can get the Smart ID, such as rolling out the service to hundreds more bank branches.

The Strategic Plan has set an ambitious goal of putting DHA smart services in 1,000 bank branches over the next five years, including 100 more branches by the end of 2025.

The goal is also to make the service accessible through banking apps, so that Home Affairs services can be done in the comfort of one’s own home.

The Banking Association of South Africa has confirmed that it is still in talks with the department over the service level agreements needed to make this a reality.