South Africa’s green ID book disaster

When former home affairs minister Naledi Pandor first launched South Africa’s smart ID card project in 2013, the plan was to replace the old green ID book in short order.

In a notice dated 28 June 2013 published in the Government Gazette, Pandor said she would set a date by 2016 for the invalidity of green, bar-coded ID documents.

Her exact wording was “at least within three years from the effective date of this notice, or soon thereafter”.

The notice declared that all South African citizens and permanent residents would be required to apply for new identity cards from 18 July 2013.

Permanent residents have never been able to apply for smart ID cards — a major problem that must be resolved before the old green ID books can be declared invalid.

Naturalised citizens faced a similar problem, with a handful receiving invitation letters from the minister to apply for a smart ID.

The notice also stipulated that the programme would follow a phased approach, with identified categories of citizens being allowed to apply from the start date as part of a pilot project.

“We will start with young South Africans as first-time applicants for identity documents, as well as senior citizens,” Pandor promised in a separate statement at the time.

“In order to avoid a rush, applicants will be invited to our offices in stages, according to their dates of birth,” she continued.

“In terms of delivery to the broader public, we will announce our plans soon.”

The broader public was only invited to apply in 2016.

Pandor’s original 2013 notice also stated that the smart ID programme is expected to be rolled-out over a period of 6 to 7 years.

She then contradicted the official notice in a statement delivered on 4 July, adding a year onto the deadline.

“We must stress that it will take between six and eight years before all South Africans have Smart ID Cards,” she stated.

“We appeal to everyone to be patient and to allow us to phase in this change efficiently.”

However, Pandor didn’t remain minister another year, let alone eight, with former president Jacob Zuma shuffling her to the Science and Technology portfolio in May 2014.

Malusi Gigaba took over as Minister of Home Affairs, where he served until March 2017.

By March 2015, less than two million smart ID cards had been issued.

Former Department of Home Affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni heralded this as a success.

“We are really moving, considering this process only started in 2013,” Apleni said.

However, for Home Affairs to replace the 38 million ID books it said were in circulation in 2013, it would’ve had to produce 4.75 million smart ID cards per year over eight years.

It has fallen far short of this number, with Home Affairs reporting that it had produced 2,613,248 smart ID cards in the 2022/23 financial year, and 2,822,236 in the 2023/24 financial year.

Home affairs deputy minister Njabulo Nzuza said during a recent budget vote speech that roughly 26 million South Africans hold smart ID cards.

He said the plan was to phase out green ID books when the DHA reached 38 million smart ID cards.

Even ignoring that this doesn’t account for the new green ID books issued over the past 11 years, it would take another four years at 3 million smart IDs per year to get to this number.

Former home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi caused alarm for many South Africans and permanent residents in late June 2024 when he told E-tv news that the green ID book would soon be invalid.

“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.

However, he noted that nothing was set in stone.