Government22.07.2024

Good news for South Africans with green ID books

South Africa’s green ID books will likely remain valid for years to come as the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) isn’t issuing enough smart ID cards to wholly migrate to the newer technology.

During the DHA’s budget vote speech presented on Monday, 15 July 2024, deputy minister Njabulo Nzuza said the department wants to issue 2.5 million smart ID cards during the 2024/25 financial year.

This would make a slight reduction in the number of cards issued in previous years, with the DHA issuing 2.6 million cards in 2022/23.

“In the 23/24 financial year, the Department issued 2,822,236 smart ID cards to citizens aged 16 years and above, against a target of 2.5 million,” said Nzuza.

“This is an increase of 7% compared with the 2,613,248 smart ID cards issued in 2022/23. This year we plan to issue a further 2.5 million Smart ID Cards.”

At this production rate, the DHA will struggle to justify a deadline for invalidating South Africa’s green ID books.

Former home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi caused alarm for many South African residents in late June 2024 when he told E-tv news that his department would soon invalidate the green ID book.

It will be replaced by the newer smart ID card.

“We want to do away with the green barcode ID. We think it’s long enough that we’ve kept dual identity documents,” said Motsoaledi.

He urged South Africans to apply for smart ID cards so they would not be left behind when the older format is invalidated.

DHA deputy director-general Thulani Mavuso said in a later interview that the department hopes to phase out green ID books within the next two to three years.

Even this timeframe is ambitious. However, he noted that nothing was set in stone.

The DHA estimated that around 38 million ID books were in circulation in 2013 when the smart ID system was launched.

Aaron Motsoaledi, South Africa’s former Home Affairs minister

Mavuso said roughly 26 million South Africans hold smart ID cards. He added that the plan was to phase out green ID books when the DHA reached 38 million smart ID cards.

However, this doesn’t account for the numerous new green ID books that have been issued over the past 11 years.

MyBroadband recently used the Department of Basic Education’s high school data to estimate the number of green ID books issued since the smart ID system launched in 2013.

The data shows that more than one million students are admitted into Grade 10 annually, with most turning 16 during their Grade 10 year.

The issuance of green ID books and smart ID cards has a minimum age requirement of 16 years.

According to the department’s data, roughly 11 million students have been admitted to Grade 10 since 2014, excluding this year’s admissions.

However, it should be noted that many South Africans drop out of school before Grade 10, so the actual number of citizens who have turned 16 since 2014 will likely be higher.

Assuming that 50% of South Africans who have turned 16 since 2014 applied for smart ID cards, the roughly 5.5 million remaining would have been issued a green ID book.

It is also essential to consider another factor that impacts the number of IDs in issue — death.

Between 500,000 and 600,000 South Africans passed away each year between 2013 and 2023, reducing the number of IDs in issue by up to 6.6 million over the past 11 years.

While the deaths also included those of children and adults who didn’t have ID books, these factors show that the DHA must estimate the number of green ID books in use before it can set an expiry date.

Another issue with the plan to invalidate green ID books is that naturalised citizens or people with permanent residency have not been able to apply for the newer ID cards.

New home affairs minister Leon Schreiber said earlier this month that this is being phased in. However, he said there is not set timeline as yet.

Show comments

Latest news

More news

Trending news

Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter