The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) issued over four million smart ID cards in 2025, the highest rate of delivery in the history of the department.
For the 2025 calendar year, the department says a total of 4 002 964 smart ID cards were issued, representing a 17% increase on the 3 427 468 smart IDs issued during 2024.
The 2025 performance is about 1.3 million more than the number of smart IDs issued during the 2023 and 2022 calendar years, it states.
The improvement, it says, was driven by a focus on technology upgrades and improved efficiencies at the DHA and Government Printing Works, which produces the smart IDs.
The department points out that it also invested in repairing the online verification service, which it says was previously “underfunded and abused by some external users”.
The correction led to higher uptime and better performance of the population register, according to the DHA statement.
“The milestone of delivering over four million smart IDs in a calendar year for the very first time demonstrates how our commitment to digital transformation is expanding inclusion and access at a scale never seen before,” says minister Dr Leon Schreiber.
“Smart IDs are vastly more secure than the fraud-prone green barcoded ID book. Thanks to the ongoing digital transformation of home affairs, over four million more people gained the ability to securely open a bank account, access employment and obtain social grants in 2025.”
First introduced in 2013, the smart ID cards are a key pillar of the DHA’s modernisation programme, replacing the traditional green ID books for South African citizens. They are also aimed at curbing identity fraud.
To speed up the process, the department has tasked major banking outlets to roll out the smart IDs in their branches.
To further enhance access to smart IDs, the department is currently in the final phase of preparatory work for the rollout of a new digital partnership with the banking sector. This will enable citizens to access smart IDs at more bank branches around the country, close to where they live.
Schreiber concludes: “The accelerated rollout of smart IDs is a cornerstone of the department’s medium-term development plan targets. The green bar-coded ID book, which the smart ID is intended to replace, has become a soft target for fraudsters and is estimated to be 500% more vulnerable to fraud than the smart ID.”
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