{"id":652238,"date":"2026-06-10T07:59:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T05:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=652238"},"modified":"2026-06-10T08:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T06:03:08","slug":"the-end-of-green-id-books-in-south-africa-poses-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/government\/652238-the-end-of-green-id-books-in-south-africa-poses-a-problem.html","title":{"rendered":"The end of green ID books in South Africa poses a problem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While the Department of Home Affairs plans to invalidate the green ID book over the next few years, it appears there is no standardised practice for removing these documents from circulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, the department intensified efforts to eradicate the green ID book, which has become a prime target for identity thieves and fraudsters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paper-based document is easy to manipulate and has been exploited by syndicates collaborating with corrupt Home Affairs officials to forge or doctor stolen identity books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The polycarbonate smart ID card is not physically more difficult to manipulate; it features digital components that tie into Home Affairs’ official databases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the smart ID card was introduced in 2013, the original plan was to phase out the 38 million green ID books in circulation at the time within eight years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of 2025, about 29 million smart ID cards had been issued, only about 76% of the target it had hoped to reach four years earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, many Home Affairs offices continued to issue green IDs over the last 12 years because they were not equipped with live-capture equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department estimated that the number of green ID books in circulation was still around 16 million by late 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The smart ID card rollout has picked up pace following the launch of the new digital partnership programme with several major banks in March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 100,000 applications were processed by the three banks that had rolled out branches in the programme within two months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this will undoubtedly help more people gain access to a smart ID, there seems to be no official policy on what must happen to their old green ID book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the smart ID card was initially launched, the department said all applicants would be required to hand in their green ID book when collecting their card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home Affairs officials were then supposed to hand over these documents for cancellation and destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the South African government’s newspaper, Vukuzenzele, this was to cancel the old document “in accordance with the Identification Act.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, employees complicit in fraud or forgery of IDs have often been caught out for failing to block or cancel the IDs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hand-in no longer required<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Queues at a busy Home Affairs office<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In early May 2026, Home Affairs told MyBroadband that its offices were no longer confiscating green ID books from new smart ID card holders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, they would only invalidate them by defacing them. Entities requiring official ID don’t accept documents that are damaged or defaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, the defacing serves as a surefire way to invalidate the green ID book and prevent future misuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it seemed that some Home Affairs and banking employees were unaware of this process or that the policy extended to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A MyBroadband reader who applied for their smart ID card at a bank branch in April said bank staff did not want to deface or take their green ID, but said they could keep it as a memento. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several MyBroadband forum members also said that Home Affairs staff did nothing with their green ID books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Just gave me back my old ID book, didn’t deface it. Will see if it still scans, or I can only use the smart card version,” one member said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When I got my smart card, I tried to give Home Affairs my green ID book \u2014 they didn’t want it,” a second member said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We asked the Department of Home Affairs whether the defacing policy was compulsory or extended to the digital partnership programme, but it did not respond by the time of publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the Department of Home Affairs plans to invalidate the green ID book in the next few years, it appears there is no standardised practice for getting these documents out of circulation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":646015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18668],"tags":[9695,33805,165,100111,104472,1703,17442,99972],"class_list":["post-652238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-crime","tag-department-of-home-affairs-dha","tag-fraud","tag-green-id-books","tag-green-ids","tag-home-affairs","tag-smart-id-cards","tag-smart-ids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652238"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653004,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652238\/revisions\/653004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}