There are currently 30 bank branches across South Africa where people can get a new passport or smart ID, eliminating the need to visit a Home Affairs branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most South Africans dread visiting a Home Affairs branch due to poor customer service, the system often being offline, and the need to queue for hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are thousands of online complaints about the Department of Home Affairs, ranging from long waiting times to rude staff and non-working computers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi acknowledged they are battling long queues at offices across South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He unveiled numerous initiatives to improve service levels, including overhauling the department\u2019s tech and networks and rolling out more mobile banking units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, these initiatives have not fully addressed the frustration of visiting a Home Affairs office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that people who need a new passport or smart ID do not have to visit a Home Affairs branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2015, the Department of Home Affairs launched its eHome Affairs pilot, allowing banks to provide an alternative channel for engaging with the department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the memorandum of understanding between the banks and the department, the system uses the department\u2019s employees to render the service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
eHome Affairs makes it possible for banking customers to book appointments on the digital platform to apply for and process Smart IDs and passports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africans have their biometric information, including a photo and fingerprints, taken at the bank branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This biometric information, in addition to personal details submitted online, is then used to produce the new smart ID or passport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The process is completely paperless. All the required details are submitted online, and payment is also made on the eHomeAffairs website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The person is alerted when their new passport or smart ID is available, and they can pick it up at the bank branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The platform has been operational for nine years, and millions of South Africans have used it to obtain new passports and smart IDs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are currently 30 bank branches at Absa, Discovery Bank, FNB, Nedbank, Investec and Standard Bank, where South Africans can get a new smart ID and passport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that there are plans to significantly expand the project with many more branches to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BASA\u2019s prudential head, Mark Brits, said the agreements to expand the service were mostly completed and signed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FNB plans to add 18 eHome Affairs branches and Absa currently has an additional 12 branches ready for activation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discovery Bank also announced that it plans to expand the service by adding four locations in Cape Town, Pretoria, and Durban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new Discovery Bank eHome Affairs branches will be in Sea Point, Century City, Pretoria, and Umhlanga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nedbank has also confirmed it wants to expand its home affairs services but has not confirmed how many new branches it will add.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If all these plans come to fruition, the number of eHome Affairs bank branches in South Africa will increase from 30 to 64.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, for now, South Africans can only visit the 30 branches in the table below to apply for and get their new smart ID or passport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bad news is that this service is not available in all provinces. This is one of the problems the Department of Home Affairs want to address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The service to renew South African Smart IDs and passports at bank branches is not available in the Free State or North West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The service is currently available in select bank branches in Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are 30 bank branches in South Africa where people can get a new passport or smart ID. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":779211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[19423,6239,21334,8865,6230],"class_list":["post-805584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-aaron-motsoaledi","tag-department-of-home-affairs","tag-ehome-affairs","tag-passport","tag-smart-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805584"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":806154,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805584\/revisions\/806154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Bank branches offering passport and smart ID services<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Bank<\/strong><\/td> Address<\/strong><\/td> Contact<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> Standard Bank (9)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> Standard Bank Canal Walk<\/td> Shop 599, Upper Level, Canal Walk Shopping Center, Century Blvd, Century City<\/td> 021 529 8216<\/td><\/tr> Standard Bank Centurion<\/td> Cnr Lenchen and Old Johannesburg Rd Centurion Lifestyle Centre<\/td> 012 671 4042<\/td><\/tr> Standard Bank Jubilee Mall<\/td> Shop no. 47 Jubilee Mall corner Jubliee and Harry Gwala Road Temba Hammanskraal<\/td> 011 351 7814<\/td><\/tr> Standard Bank Kathu Mall <\/td> Shop 62 Village Walk Shopping Centre Kathu, Hendrik Van Eck Street, Postmasburg<\/td> 053 723 9610<\/td><\/tr> Standard Bank Killarney Mall<\/td> Killarney Mall, Riviera Rd, Killarney, Johannesburg<\/td> 011 486 0002<\/td><\/tr> Standard Bank Kingsmead<\/td> 1 Kingsmead Way, Durban<\/td> 031 308 7900<\/td><\/tr> Standard Bank Mitchell\u2019s Plain Promenade<\/td> Corner AZ Berman Road And Morgenster Road, Mitchell\u2019s Plain<\/td> 0860 123 000<\/td><\/tr> Standard Bank Newton Park<\/td> 1 Pickering St Newton Park Port Elizabeth<\/td> 041 404 8319<\/td><\/tr> Standard Bank Simmonds Street<\/td> 5 Simmonds St, Selby, Johannesburg.<\/td> 011 631 1624 \/ 011 639 4205<\/td><\/tr> FNB (7)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> FNB Burgersfort<\/td> Shop 55 Twin City Complex Dirk Winterbach Street Burgersfort<\/td> 072 457 8619 \/ 013 216 0098<\/td><\/tr> FNB Centurion Lifestyle Centre<\/td> Cnr Lenchen and Old Johannesburg Rd Centurion Lifestyle Centre Centurion<\/td> 066 460 0530 \/ 012 653 2661<\/td><\/tr> FNB Cornubia<\/td> Shop U56, Cornubia Boulevard, Cnr N2 Highway & M41, Durban<\/td> 031 308 7900<\/td><\/tr> FNB Glen Shopping Centre<\/td> Shop U2, The Glen Shopping Centre, Glenvista<\/td> 061 495 4441<\/td><\/tr> FNB Greenpoint<\/td> Shop 1 & 2, ERF 176300, Media Quarter, Somerset Road, Greenpoint<\/td> 087 345 6090<\/td><\/tr> FNB Lynwood<\/td> Shop L04 Upper-level Cnr Simon Vermooten & Lynnwood Rd Equestria Pretoria<\/td> 066 460 0130<\/td><\/tr> FNB Merchant Place<\/td> 4 Merchant Place c\/o Rivonia and Freedman Dr Sandton<\/td> 066 290 3307<\/td><\/tr> Nedbank (6)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> Nedbank Arcadia<\/td> Shop 25, Nedbank Plaza, Beatrix Street, Arcadia<\/td> 066 460 0122<\/td><\/tr> Nedbank Constantia Kloof<\/td> 16 Constantia Boulevard Constantia Kloof Roodepoort<\/td> 011 639 4208<\/td><\/tr> Nedbank Durban North <\/td> 57 Adelaide Tambo Dr, Durban North, 4051<\/td> 0800 555 111<\/td><\/tr> Nedbank Nelspruit<\/td> Shop 65 The Crossing Shopping Centre c\/o Samora Machel and Madiba Drive Nelspruit<\/td> 081 336 5941<\/td><\/tr> Nedbank Rivonia<\/td> 135 Rivonia Road, Sandown, Sandton<\/td> 066 290 3257<\/td><\/tr> Nedbank St George\u2019s Mall<\/td> Shop 3 The Box, St Georges Mall c\/o Riebeeck Street<\/td> 0800 555 111<\/td><\/tr> Absa (6)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> Absa Centurion Lifestyle Centre<\/td> Shop 36 c\/o Lenchen and Old Johannesburg Road Centurion Lifestyle Centre Centurion<\/td> 066 460 0356<\/td><\/tr> Absa Key West Krugersdorp<\/td> Shop 80 Key West Shopping Centre cnr Paardekraal Drive and Viljoen Street Krugersdorp<\/td> 079 900 6457<\/td><\/tr> Absa Port Elizabeth<\/td> 682 Cnr. Bagshaw & Govan Mbeki Avenue, Port Elizabeth<\/td> 041 404 8319<\/td><\/tr> Absa Sandton City<\/td> Cnr Rivonia Road and 5th Street Sandton<\/td> 066 290 3314<\/td><\/tr> Absa Stellenbosch <\/td> Oude Bloemhof Building, Cnr Plein And Ryneveld Streets, Stellenbosch<\/td> 021 809 2311<\/td><\/tr> Absa Towers <\/td> Cnr Commissioner And Troye Streets, Johannesburg<\/td> 011 350 4111<\/td><\/tr> Discovery Bank (1)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> Discovery Bank Head Office<\/td> 1 Discovery Place, c\/o Rivonia Road and Katherine Street, Sandton<\/td> 0860 998 877<\/td><\/tr> Investec (1)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> Investec Bank Sandown<\/td> 100 Grayston Dr Sandown Sandton<\/td> 011 286 7000<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"