{"id":867175,"date":"2026-07-23T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=867175"},"modified":"2026-07-23T09:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T07:31:19","slug":"big-changes-coming-for-smart-id-and-passport-renewals-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/867175\/big-changes-coming-for-smart-id-and-passport-renewals-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Big changes coming for Smart ID and passport renewals in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africans will soon be able to have their Smart ID cards and passports delivered directly to their homes as part of the department’s wider digital transformation programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is according to Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber, who said the department has already made significant progress in expanding access to Smart ID services through banks, but stressed that this is only the beginning of a broader reform plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking in an interview with HOT Business<\/a>, he rejected suggestions that the department was simply shifting queues from Home Affairs offices to bank branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The old model was excluding people because when I took over, there were 214 Home Affairs officers across the country, as well as 30 bank branches using an old manual model where you could obtain a Smart ID card,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It effectively meant that we were forcing 63 million people into those 214 locations. Even if they all worked perfectly, it simply was not enough capacity.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Schreiber said the department is decentralising access by dramatically expanding the number of participating bank branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In the last 4.5 months, we’ve added 327 bank branches that offer Smart ID replacement services, which means in that period we have more than doubled the footprint of access to the service,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that many of the new locations are outside the country’s largest cities, including Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, Kathu in the Northern Cape and Burgersfort in Limpopo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Schreiber acknowledged that more work is needed to be done to ensure services are accessible to all South Africans, particularly those living in rural areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re not there yet. This is obviously part of the full reform programme that we’re rolling out over this five-year period,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next phase of the rollout will see the number of participating bank branches increase from the current 327 to 750 by the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home delivery coming soon <\/h2>\n\n\n
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Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The department also plans to expand the range of services available at these branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re then also adding more services\u2014first-time ID applications, passport applications, as well as introducing home delivery for the very first time,” Schreiber said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So, like you get your debit card delivered to your doorstep, you’ll receive your ID and your passport in the same way, and you won’t have to go and collect it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking further ahead, Schreiber said the department aims to expand the network to more than 1,000 bank branches before ultimately introducing digital identity credentials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This will enable us to provide digital credentials of your Home Affairs products. Think about how people now use their credit card or their debit card on their smartphone,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They’ve got it on the phone, they may also have a physical copy, and that ultimately is going to decentralise access fully into your own hands.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schreiber said demand for the new service has exceeded expectations. He revealed that more than 422,000 Smart ID applications had already been processed through participating bank branches during the past four-and-a-half months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that this figure excludes applications processed through traditional Home Affairs offices, which continue to operate as normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Schreiber, the additional capacity provided by banks is already beginning to ease pressure on government offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have indeed seen already the first signs of a reduction in queues. This is actually helping our officials at branches to keep their heads above water,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that Smart ID production times are also improving. “We’re well ahead of our stipulated turnaround time of 13 working days, and we’re doing that at volumes we’ve never seen before,” Schreiber said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africans will soon be able to have their Smart ID cards and passports delivered directly to their homes as part of the department’s wider digital transformation programme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":867176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2080193959809167720","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2524,20089,6230,853],"class_list":["post-867175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-home-affairs","tag-passport-renewal","tag-smart-id","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867175","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867175"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":867187,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867175\/revisions\/867187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}