The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is missing fingerprints for 377 084 citizens on its Home Affairs National Identification System (Hanis), due to poor quality.
The DHA was attempting to translate manual fingerprint records into the electronic format, but due to poor quality, 504 250 fingerprints were not converted.
“To date, we have managed to resolve 127 166 cases and holders of the relevant ID numbers now have their fingerprints on Hanis. We are now seized with resolving the outstanding 377 084 cases,” said director-general Mkuseli Apleni, at a press briefing.
Duplicating citizens
Despite this backlog, the department says significant progress has been made in cleaning up the National Population Register (NPR).
“When we began implementing measures to clean up the NPR, we identified two significant challenges. One was the duplication of ID numbers, which was manifested in one of two ways - instances where one person had more than one ID number and instances where one ID number was shared among two or more people.”
The department identified 598 000 instances of duplicate IDs. It has now resolved 412 096 cases where one person had multiple ID numbers and 20 971 cases where multiple persons shared one ID number.
Apleni added that all duplicate numbers have since been blocked on the NPR and the department must now resolve the outstanding 164 933 cases.
He said the other challenge was the identification of ID numbers that did not have corresponding fingerprints, leaving the department vulnerable to identity fraud and theft.
Biometric security
“It is imperative to have fingerprints on the Hanis database for verification, since it could result in a duplicate case if the incorrect fingerprints are stored against that ID number.”
For this reason, Apleni stressed the importance of resolving the challenge where poor quality fingerprints could not be captured electronically. “What is happening in the future - once we have every fingerprint in the system, there will be no possibility of ID fraud.”
He said affected South Africans have been contacted by the department telephonically and through written correspondence. The department will also publish the names and date of births of the affected people in local newspapers from next week.
Price increases
The DG also announced the increase of tariffs for services rendered by the department. The new gazetted tariffs will become effective on 1 April.
The price of getting a passport has increased from R190 to R400 for adults and from R145 to R400 for children. Apleni said this tariff increase is due to the improved security features on passports.
“Our passports did not have any security features. The passport we are now producing has a lot of security features, which is costing us a lot more to produce. But we feel that the amount of R400 is reasonable and the passport is now more valuable and secure.”
The DHA is yet to release details of the new passports, which are supposed to be biometric.
Contract reconciliation
“We were also recently talking about why we would like to implement WAIO [Who Am I Online] going forward. In implementing WAIO, we will ensure the department improves things for the public. The implementation of WAIO will ensure these things [fraud] no longer happen,” said Apleni.
Who Am I Online is a project that will see the overhaul of the department's systems. The project aims to replace outdated and obsolete legacy systems, as well as improve security.
The project was delayed due to the contract with IT company Gijima being cancelled. Gijima and the DHA recently reached a settlement over the contract. The company will now continue work on the project, and the DHA has expectations for it to be completed within the next two years.
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