Home Affairs assesses digital transformation, outlines ID card roadmap
South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister, Leon Schreiber, has announced that the working prototype for the country’s smartphone-based digital ID has been built, with work underway for its pilot and eventual rollout at scale.
Schreiber made the announcement recently at Constitution Hill, where he presented an address midway into his mandate as home affairs minister, a role he assumed 27 months ago. His address, in the course of which a live demonstration of the new digital ID prototype was done, also provided a detailed assessment of the department’s digital transformation journey since taking over.
The minister emphasized the importance of the upcoming digital ID, saying it is a secure digital credential that will complement the existing Smart ID card and make access to services much easier. With it, he said the country looks forward to putting an end to the era of submitting an application at all, saying their wish is to see a decline in the number of people visiting traditional offices for basic or routine transactions, with the increasing access to digital self-service channels at their local bank branch.
President Ramaphosa had assured citizens in a state of the nation address early this year that everything would be done to get the ID rolled out before 2026 runs out. The initiative is part of the MyMzansi DPI roadmap, and the digital ID is stored and managed within the digital wallet included in the MyMzansi application.
Schrieber was issued the first-ever South African Digital ID during the demonstration. He was joined by Home Affairs Director General Tommy Makhode to show how the new digital ID is used to request identity verification.
The holder presents their ID in the form of a QR code, which the relying party scans. The relying party then selects the information they wish to request, and the bearer approves or denies the request, in whole or in part. The Digital ID therefore provides selective disclosure. It also pulls a facial image from the national population register.
Digital transformation drive ahead of schedule
Meanwhile, Schreiber took a retrospective look at their journey, stating that the department’s role as an “operating system” for the government’s digital transformation drive is well on track. He cited several digital initiatives that reflect this assessment.
Schreiber outlined the difficulties faced by Home Affairs in the early days of his administration for citizens to access services. He said the Home Affairs ecosystem was manual and paper-based, with only 329 physical locations for about 63 million South Africans to access services, often in very difficult moments. But in the last two and a half years, he said there has been remarkable progress, thanks to the “Home Affairs@Home” vision that underpins his administration.
The official said at the start of their work, they identified three key projects that would serve as the anchor of their reform program. These included decentralizing and expanding access to physical documents like Smart IDs and passports to 1,000 bank branches, introducing an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) program to digitalize and secure the visa process from beginning to end, and building a digital identity system that enables South Africans to access Home Affairs documents directly through their smartphones.
“I can today announce that Home Affairs is now so far ahead of schedule on our reform journey that we are raising our ambitions beyond anything that would have seemed possible just 27 months ago,” he said.
The department tabled a budget of about $828 million to fund its activities for the 2026/2027 fiscal year.
Physical ID transition
In the last six months, he said, Home Affairs has more than tripled access to Smart ID replacement services. In August, it also launched a dedicated portal to ease the process.
“No fewer than 515 bank branches now offer biometrically based digital services where any South African can walk in without an appointment and apply for a replacement Smart ID in just five minutes. Over 822,500 people have already used this new service,” Schreiber said. He assured that by the end of this year, the service will be available at over 1,000 service points, compared to just 214 locations that offered Smart ID replacements before the formation of the government of national unity.
The official added that in the near future, passport applications and first-time Smart ID applications will also become available at these partner bank branches, whose network has been expanding.
Schreiber described the Green ID Book as “irreconcilable with the functioning of a modern state.”
He announced that the Department of Home Affairs will put an end to the production of the ID by March 31 next year. The Green ID Book is long considered a flawed ID document, given its susceptibility to identity theft and other forms of fraud. The government has over the years been gradually phasing it out in favor of the Smart ID, which it is now emphasizing for stronger adoption.
When the March 31 deadline is reached, the 14.7 million South African citizens and permanent residents who still hold only a Green ID book will have a further 12 months to make the switch to the Smart ID. First-time applicants, as well as applicants over 60 years of age, will remain exempt from paying the application fee for their Smart ID, he mentioned.
The Home Affairs Minister also mentioned upcoming reforms to the ETA system, saying in early 2027, it would see the addition of more visa categories, including study visas and work visas, as part of efforts to eliminate the scope of human interference in the country’s visa processing system.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Ayang Macdonald
Dieser Artikel ist neu veröffentlicht von / This article is republished from: Biometric Update, 02.10.2026
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