The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) will not add additional security features to South African passports and says the tariff increase in April was for security features added two years ago.
In March, DHA director-general Mkuseli Apleni announced tariff increases for home affairs services. This included a price increase for passports from R190 to R400. The price of a child passport also increased to R400, from R145.
Apleni said this tariff increase is for 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.”
In media reports in January, Apleni was reported as saying the DHA will recall all passports within the next 12 months and will replace them with new, more secure passports.
However, in response to a recent Parliamentary question, home affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the department does not intend to include any further biometric or enhanced security features in the passport.
“The current passport has all the relevant security features, and is considered a highly-secure document. Should the department, at a later stage, find a need to upgrade any current security features this will be done in consultation with all relevant stakeholders.”
Old enhancements
In April 2009, the department announced new secure, passports.
From 9 April 2009, South Africans applying for a new passport or renewing their current one, received the new document with improved security features.
Government previously stated secure passports would be introduced by 2007 - but failed to meet that deadline.
In February 2009, the British High Commission announced South Africans would require visas with their passports to enter the country. This followed reports of high incidences of South African passport and ID-document fraud locally and abroad - resulting in a call for security measures to be incorporated into these documents.
The security-enhanced passports use biometric technology to authenticate travellers' identity. Critical information is stored on a tiny RFID computer chip, much like information stored on smart cards.
Like some smart cards, the passport book design calls for an embedded contactless chip that holds digital signature data to ensure the integrity of the passport and the biometric data.
It is for these features, added more than two years ago, that the department this year increased passport prices.
“The additional security enhancements implemented over the past two years have ensured that South African passports are much more secure. These include biometric features. The increase in tariffs from R190 to R400 covers the costs of the additional security enhancements,” says the DHA.
Monopoly abuse
“The Democratic Alliance (DA) thinks these huge increases are utter nonsense and rejects them. It's an abuse of power and undermines human dignity,” says shadow deputy minister of home affairs, Masizole Mnqasela.
He says the increase has made the SA passport unaffordable for many South Africans, especially those that need to travel within the SADC region.
Mnqasela added that the enhanced security features on passports mean, according to the department, that they're no longer easy to copy and forge.
“We have objected to this increase and engaged with the department and when they gave their reasons it didn't make sense.”
He explains that if the department could afford to add those security features and not hike up prices when they were introduced two years ago, there is no reason why they cannot afford it now.
“They fail to prove their case. Even though there needed to be added security to South African passports, we don't believe the price is justifiable. As the DA we are greatly opposed to it. It's an infringement on people's right to move freely.
“If there was a private offering for these home affairs services, people would definitely have gone elsewhere by now. The government is taking advantage, because there is not competition to keep them in check.”
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