Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi has announced that South Africans will soon be able to get their passports and Smart IDs at select malls in South Africa, as his department works to expand services to more branches.<\/p>\n
During his response to the State of the Nation Address this week, the minister said that systems and equipment have already been set up at Menlyn Mall<\/strong> in Tshwane, ready to roll out in the first week of March 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n “In three weeks\u2019 time, you may go to Menlyn and experience waiting to be served while you are doing your shopping,” he said.<\/p>\n Immediately after the Menlyn Mall Pilot, the department will move to launch similar services at Cresta Mall<\/strong> in Johannesburg, the Pavillion<\/strong> in eThekwini and Tygervalley<\/strong> in Cape Town.<\/p>\n “We believe that all of those will be functional before the end of the coming financial year. That means this calendar year,” he said. The government’s new financial year starts on 1 April 2023.<\/p>\n Motsoaledi said that the mall rollout is done in partnership with the malls, and that part of the agreement will see the Home Affairs branches operating rent-free for a period of five years.<\/p>\n “For the next five years, we are not going to pay a single cent for rental because this project is mutualism. We bring people to come and do their shopping, and the malls give us space and other convenient facilities. So we both gain,” he said.<\/p>\n On the day that the Menlyn Mall branch opens, Motsoaledi said the department will significantly expand the platform to acquire identification documents.<\/p>\n “We will be receiving 20 brand new mobile Home Affairs units, that means Home Affairs on wheels, to travel the length and breadth of the country giving people their identification documents. We have already put an order for another 100 for the new financial year.<\/p>\n “Presently, we are at only 100 such vehicles. In essence, this means we are increasing our mobile offices by 120%, and we are hoping to do so every year, at least for the next five years.”<\/p>\n The mobile units are all fitted with in-built generators to deal with load shedding, he said.<\/p>\n Bank branch expansion<\/strong><\/p>\n Plans are still underway to expand the number of bank branches where Home Affairs services are available.<\/p>\n Presenting to the portfolio committee on Home Affairs in November, the department said that it is anticipating the rollout of 43 more branches<\/strong>\u00a0once agreements with the participating banks are signed in 2023.<\/p>\n Home Affairs opened a branch in Kathu Mall in the Northern Cape in 2022, taking\u00a0the total number of active bank branches with Home Affairs services to 27.<\/p>\n Progress in signing the agreements has been slow, due to the banks being hesitant to get into bed with the department due to the reputational risk involved with extended periods of downtime.<\/p>\n \u201cThe banks have raised the State Information Technology Agency\u2019s (SITA\u2019s) turnaround times as a big reputation risk for them \u2013 and need assurances that their sites won\u2019t be offline for longer periods,\u201d the department said.<\/p>\n The period for the banking Home Affairs pilot ended in July 2022, it said, but the banks agreed to extend the pilot to 31 March 2023. The department said that it envisages that it would have signed agreements with all the participating banks before that date.<\/p>\n
\n