The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has, in eight weeks, processed 118 434 smart IDs through its digital partnership with banks.
It aims to offer this service at 750 bank branches by the end of the year.
This is according to minister Dr Leon Schreiber, who today delivered the department’s budget vote speech in Parliament. This will extend Home Affairs’ identification service to “every corner of South Africa” and “finally end the recognition of the green ID book as a valid form of identification”.
According to Schreiber, the green ID is the most defrauded document on the African continent and “sits at the heart of financial fraud and identity theft in our country”.
In August, Standard Bank, Capitec, First National Bank and Absa announced they would be integrating smart ID and passport applications into their apps. This formed part of an expanded digital model aimed at overhauling a pilot project put in place in 2016, enabling citizens to apply for passports and ID cards at selected branches.
The first phase saw banks expanding the number of branches at which identification documents could be secured, part of the DHA’s plan to expand ID and passport applications to an initial 1 000 bank branches by 2029.
Gone in 300 seconds
Schreiber said through including more banks in its digital ecosystem and taking the number of connected branches to 167, access to replacement cards has been expanded “by a staggering 47% just two months after the system went live. More branches are going live each week.”
He noted: “Through this new model, the smart ID application process has been completely digitalised. Gone are the days of spending a whole day in a queue. At these 167 bank branches, it now takes as little as five minutes to apply for an ID. No prior bookings are required. No paperwork is needed.”
Because there is “no official discretion”, the system is totally sealed “off from manipulation and fraud by relying on the power of biometric technology”.
In addition, the minister said the department will introduce “doorstep delivery of IDs and passports for the first time in South African history” with smart IDs and passports to be securely couriered to citizens’ homes.
Visa-free ambitions
Schreiber also pointed to the success of the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system, launched in September 2025 to replace traditional paper-based visas for eligible travellers. It was rolled out ahead of the G20 leaders’ summit at the end of November for tourists from China, India, Mexico and Indonesia.
“Even with the rollout initially limited to just four countries, I can report today that the ETA has already processed over 75 000 applications, resulting in more than 71 000 approvals and nearly 4 500 rejections,” said Schreiber.
Schreiber said that for the rest of the current Government of National Unity’s term, the department will roll out the ETA to cover all visa categories “to entirely eliminate the space for inefficiency, fraud and corruption”.
Home Affairs also recently published draft regulations in terms of the Identification Act regarding digital IDs, with the closing date for comment set for 6 June.
When, not if
These changes come as the department’s “crackdown on corruption is gathering pace at an unprecedented rate”. Since the current administration was installed in mid-2024, the department has secured 10 criminal convictions, 14 arrests and 65 dismissals.
“We are now carrying out dismissals, arrests and convictions on a near-weekly basis. Crooked officials are no longer asking whether they will be caught. They are spending all their time wondering when it will be their turn,” said the minister.
At the beginning of the month, the department suspended two senior officials with immediate effect following the detection of apparent AI “hallucinations” cited as references appended to the recently Cabinet-approved Revised White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection.
It also appointed two independent law firms to respectively manage the disciplinary process and review all policy documents produced by the department dating back to 30 November 2022, when the first large language model was released to the general public.
“We will not rest until every single corrupt official is swept away by the tide of accountability that is washing over Home Affairs,” added Schreiber.
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