Major announcement about green ID books

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber says his department will “work flat-out” in 2025 to ensure all South Africans can get smart ID cards.

While residents born in South Africa have been able to apply for years, naturalised citizens and permanent residents have been left behind and stuck with green ID books.

“Home Affairs will work flat-out this year to ensure that all South Africans are able to obtain Smart IDs as part of our vision to deliver Home Affairs @ Home,” Schreiber said in a post on X.

The Home Affairs @ Home plan aims to expand the department’s partnerships with banks, introduce home deliveries, make smart IDs available to all citizens, and launch new online channels.

The emphasis on making smart ID cards available to all citizens suggests that the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) will allow naturalised citizens and permanent residents to apply for the document.

The DHA has allowed naturalised residents to apply for the document in the past. However, they must first secure an invitation to apply from the DHA’s director-general.

In August 2024, Schreiber said support for smart ID cards was gradually being implemented for naturalised citizens. At the time, 280 cards had been issued, and another 697 were 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,” he added.

However, permanent residents in South Africa have never been allowed to apply for smart ID cards, and the challenges these residents and naturalised citizens face are a severe problem surrounding the DHA’s plans to phase out green ID books.

Former DHA Minister Aaron Motsoaledi caused panic for many South Africans by birth, naturalised citizens, and permanent residents in June 2024 when he told E-tv news that the green ID book would soon be declared 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.

However, these South Africans have some breathing room. Schreiber says his department will only phase out the older documents when it becomes easier for all residents to apply for smart ID cards.

“It is only after this has been achieved, that we will make an official announcement on the phasing out of the green ID book,” he said.

“In the meantime, if you are able to, please do get a Smart ID to protect yourself from the vulnerabilities of the green ID book.”

Green ID books vulnerable to fraud

According to the DHA, green ID book holders who haven’t upgraded to the smart ID card are at greater risk of having their identities stolen.

Many refuse to upgrade their identity documents because they say the long queues at Home Affairs offices put them off. However, the DHA believes South Africans should prioritise their security and heed the call to switch to the newer document.

Smile ID’s 2024 Digital Identity Fraud report showed that the South African green ID book was the most targeted on the continent in fraudulently attempting to gain access to various services.

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

In 1980, South Africa launched the green ID book as an alternative to the over-50-page blue book that had been in use since 1972.

The 16-page green ID book featured a 13-digit ID number that included two digits for racial classification, a six-digit birth date, and four digits assigned according to gender and order of registration. The final digit was used as a control digit.

In July 1996, the DHA introduced a revised ID book comprising just eight pages. The documents used a new ID number with the racial classification digits altered.

It also featured a scannable barcode and required biometric fingerprint capturing. The biometric data was stored on the National Population Register, which could be referenced by scanning the barcode.

The barcode can be decoded by scanners readily available on the market. The document itself last received a security update in 2000, when it added the holder’s digitally-printed black and white photograph.

This replaced the pasting or hot-laminating of photos into the book, intended to make it more difficult to forge the documents by swapping out photos.