Home Affairs issues more than 1m smart ID cards
29 January 2015
More than one million smart ID cards have been issued to South Africans in less than a
year and the Department of Home Affairs says it is confident that it will reach its target
of 1.6-million by the end of the 2014/15 financial year.
Mkuseli Apleni, the department's director general, said at a media briefing on
Wednesday that the department was making "good progress" in replacing its outdated
systems with new and secure technologies.
Of the 403 Home Affairs offices, 110 are equipped with the necessary system for
processing smart ID cards and new passports, Apleni said. The department plans to
increase this to 140 offices by March.
Modernisation
"Our task is to ensure progressively that the over 38-million citizens with green ID
books convert to the smart ID cards by the time this process concludes." Smart ID cards
are being issued free of charge to 16 year olds as well as to citizens older than 60.
The smart ID card and the new passport were introduced by Home Affairs in 2013 as
part of Home Affairs' modernisation programme. The new ID card and passport have
strong security features, which significantly reduce the chances of fraud.
The new system has also improved delivery time for IDs, the department said. While it
used to take 54 days for an applicant to get an ID book, it now takes less than 10 days.
"The new cards are printed immediately at the Government Printing Works. That is why
we are able to send you text messages promptly, informing you your cards are ready for
collection. Do collect them," said Apleni.
Challenges
Apleni said the smart ID cards could only be issued at offices which have the Live
Capture system.
Citizens are opting to apply for the new smart ID card rather than the green ID book,
resulting in long queues at some offices, he said.
The Live Capture system moves away from paper forms
and manual fingerprinting. But
because it is online, "even the size of the bandwidth poses another challenge", he said.
Alpeni said the offices are able to operate even when they are offline.
"In the design of the system, we have the offline mode so that our offices should still be
operational even when power is down, although as a temporary measure. Load shedding
may impact on client service, but we have made provision for such eventualities," he
said.
Apleni said the modernisation programme would transform the manner in which Home
Affairs rendered public services in all their offices, including at South Africa's ports of
entry.
He said there was also an automated application process in place for the Dispensation
for Zimbabwean Permits, "through which they are normalising the stay of Zimbabwean
nationals who were in the country illegally".
Speeding up
According to the department, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba will
soon announce
measures to address the current network challenges.
Home Affairs is in discussions, through the Department of Telecommunications and
Postal Services, with the South African State Information Technology Agency (SITA) and
Telkom to upgrade office bandwidth and put measures in place to prevent cable theft in
metropolitan areas.
Source: SANews
Home Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor shows off her new smart ID card, Pretoria, 4 June 2013 (Photo: DoC)
