{"id":652590,"date":"2026-06-07T18:49:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T16:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=652590"},"modified":"2026-06-08T07:58:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T05:58:44","slug":"south-africans-must-say-goodbye-to-the-green-id-book-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/government\/652590-south-africans-must-say-goodbye-to-the-green-id-book-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Green ID book is being phased out \u2014 Ramaphosa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Department of Home Affairs will set a date after which green ID books will no longer be recognised, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa addressed the nation on Sunday evening about the government\u2019s approach to illegal migration and the recent surge in protests against foreign nationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that a key part of government\u2019s response would be to continue strengthening South Africa\u2019s immigration system by stamping out corruption and deploying cutting-edge technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe must recognise that illegal immigration is often enabled by corruption. We are continuing the crackdown on corruption and inefficiencies in the Department of Home Affairs,\u201d Ramaphosa stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOfficials who sell documents, facilitate unlawful entry, or abuse public office for personal gain, betray the trust of the people of South Africa. We will pursue these cases relentlessly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa said those responsible faced dismissal, criminal prosecution, and the full consequences of the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are establishing an intelligent population register that contains biometric data for every person in the country, laying the foundation for a digital ID for all of us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the same time, we will progressively discontinue the green ID books that we have, which have enabled identity theft by undocumented immigrants and criminal syndicates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa also said that government would close a loophole in a system that foreign nationals must use to register or buy vehicles in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will end the abuse of the traffic registration number system, which is currently being used as a form of identification by many,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Department of Transport will issue new regulations to align with the identification laws of our country within the next 3 months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Impersonation fraud using green ID books has increased by 400% year on year in South Africa, as fraudsters increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI)  to exploit the legacy identity system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s single largest vulnerability<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

South African identity verification platform VerifyNow said that green ID books were South Africa\u2019s single largest vulnerability, despite the country\u2019s progress toward smart IDs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its 2026 Identity Fraud Report, VerifyNow explained that the green ID book is easily forged, non-biometric and still held by millions of people in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is estimated that 16 million South Africans were still using the green barcoded ID books amid the Department of Home Affairs\u2019 aggressive Smart ID rollout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its annual performance plan for the 2026\/27 financial year, Home Affairs targeted issuing 2.2 million smart ID cards<\/a> in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department indicated quarterly targets of 506,000 to 572,000 new smart ID cards issued and was expanding its digital partnerships with South African banks to support this goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of the financial year, the department set a target for 200 bank branches nationwide to offer digital smart ID services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe department will continue to expand access to smart ID and soon passport services through its digital partnership model with the banking sector,\u201d home affairs minister Leon Schreiber said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese partnerships will support the long-term objective of replacing the green barcoded ID book with the more secure smart ID card,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VerifyNow said that AI-driven fraud has exploded in prevalence since 2025, with a significant portion targeting the green ID book system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe proliferation of generative AI tools has enabled fraud-as-a-service at scale, reducing the barrier to entry for sophisticated attacks from thousands of dollars to mere cents,\u201d the report read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe convergence of generative AI, record data breaches, and expanding digital services has created a \u2018perfect storm\u2019 for identity fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that the Department of Home Affairs will set a date after which green ID books will no longer be recognised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":652591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18668],"tags":[1952],"class_list":["post-652590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-cyril-ramaphosa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652590"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652590"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":652600,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652590\/revisions\/652600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}