Big change for smart IDs in South Africa

Home Affairs has started allowing naturalised citizens to apply for smart ID cards. However, according to photographs of a notice from a MyBroadband reader, they must first seek an invitation to apply from the department’s director-general.

A significant limitation in South Africa’s smart ID card rollout during the past eleven years has been that it is only available to born citizens.

As a result, naturalised citizens who have lost, stolen, or damaged green ID books must visit one of only a handful of offices that still support the issuing of the older document.

In addition, naturalised citizens and permanent residents could not use the Home Affairs online booking system, eHomeAffairs, to apply for passports.

This was despite former Home Affairs minister Naledi Pandor saying in 2013 that all South African citizens and permanent residents would be required to apply for new identity cards.

The change to smart ID availability for naturalised citizens began under the previous minister, Aaron Motsoaledi.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) lodged a complaint with the Public Protector in 2023 over the fact that naturalised citizens were still not allowed to get smart ID cards a decade after the new document was launched.

That came two months after director-general Livhuwani Tommy Makhode said that system modifications were underway to facilitate support for naturalised citizens’ applications.

Makhode himself said the DA had brought the issue to his attention “over and over and over again”.

Home Affairs announced in a parliamentary response in March 2024 that it had started a pilot programme of issuing smart ID cards to naturalised citizens in December 2023.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has since appointed the DA’s Leon Schreiber as Minister of Home Affairs as part of his government of national unity.

Schreiber recently shared good news for naturalised citizens who have been unable to apply for their smart ID cards.

The minister said support for smart ID cards was gradually being phased in for naturalised citizens, with 280 cards already issued and another 697 in progress.

“Once the system has been adjusted to verify compliant applications, all naturalised citizens will be able to visit any Home Affairs office equipped with live-capture facilities to apply for their smart ID cards,” said Schreiber.

MyBroadband asked Schreiber whether it was still necessary for naturalised citizens to seek an invitation to apply for a smart ID.

We also asked why Home Affairs had been unable to allow naturalised citizens to get smart ID cards until recently, but he did not comment by publication.

One massive problem with South Africa’s old ID document that could’ve influenced the decision to restrict applications is its widespread use in identity fraud across Africa.

According to Smile ID’s Digital Identity Fraud 2024, its Know-Your-Customer (KYC) checks had flagged fraud in 34% of the cases where South African ID books were used to gain access to various services.

The firm said national IDs were regularly targeted because they were the most common form of government identification and mandatory for most adults.

Therefore, it makes sense that the South African government wants to replace the old green barcoded ID with a more fraud-resistant document while ensuring that the fraud in the old system isn’t simply transferred to the new one.

The cards feature several improved anti-fraud features, including a microchip that can securely store the cardholder’s biometric information, which can be verified without needing to be linked to a central database.

Physical security measures include holograms, laser engraving, and personal details.

However, before a deadline for declaring the old ID book invalid can be set, Home Affairs will need to ramp up its rollout and open it up to all citizens and permanent residents.

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

The department reported producing 2,613,248 smart ID cards in the 2022/23 financial year and 2,822,236 in the 2023/24 financial year.

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

The 38 million figure comes from the target Home Affairs set back in 2013. It was the estimated number of green ID books in circulation at the time.

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.