The Department of Home Affairs is trying to limit the need for South Africans to go and queue at their offices in order to get their smart IDs and passports.
Image: Angus Scholtz/Independent Newspapers
The Department of Home Affairs has said that it will be focusing on getting more South Africans to obtain their smart IDs and passports without going into the department’s offices.
Minister Leon Schreiber told Daily Insider that the department is on a mission to add hundreds of new bank branches to help provide IDs and passports to South Africans.
He said the department’s priority in 2025 is delivering “Home Affairs@home".
“To achieve this, we will be rolling out additional channels for clients to obtain Home Affairs ID and passport services without requiring them to visit our offices,” Schreiber said.
“This includes deepening cooperation with banks to provide Home Affairs services in many more branches, introducing digital channels similar to online banking, and enabling clients to have IDs and passports delivered to their doorsteps.”
He said Home Affairs will continue to rollout mobile units that visit communities in rural and needy areas.
The department said that this new rollout of extra locations is part of its long-term process to phase out green ID books.
Last year, the Minister explained that the old green ID books are vulnerable to fraud and identity theft.
“We ultimately want everyone to get the smart ID. It will help the government if everyone has a more secure ID document,” Schreiber said.
He emphasised that the smart ID is a more secure document and while government encouraged South Africans to switch over to this new form of identification it has a responsibility to provide easier and better avenues to get the new ID.
“Of course, then from our side, we also need to do a lot more to enable people to actually obtain that smart ID card so we are looking at ways in which we can expand the home affairs presence,” he said.
“The ultimate aim is to deliver a Home Affairs@home which will be really a digital channel through which people can use facial recognition and biometrics to protect their identity and then also use that channel to order any documents that they may need.”
IOL BUSINESS
Related Topics: