Issuance of 2.5M smart IDs part of South Africa’s 2025 budget plan

South Africa’s Home Affairs Department says it plans to issue at least 2.5 million smart ID cards with funds from its 2024/2025 budget.

Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Njabulo Nzuza, disclosed the information at the start of this week as he defended the ministry’s budget for the next financial year in parliament, highlighting priorities for the upcoming fiscal year.

The Homes Affairs budget defended by the deputy minister stands at 10, 495 billion Rand (US$577 million), an increase from the R9,751 billion (US$536 million) in the 2023/2024 financial year.

In the budget vote speech, the government official recalled some of the achievements of the Department in terms of advancing birth registration and identity issuance in the country, and said they hope to redouble efforts so as to achieve more results in the new fiscal year.

“In the 23/24 financial year, the Department issued 2, 822, 236 smart ID cards to citizens aged 16 years and above, against a target of 2.5 million. This is an increase of 7% compared with the 2, 613, 248 smart ID cards issued in 2022/23. This year, we plan to issue a further 2.5 million Smart ID Cards,” Nzuza told members of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs.

“We are also in the process of expanding issuance of smart ID cards to naturalized citizen, with a pilot that commenced in the last quarter of 2023/24,” he added.

Talking about ID card collection and application, Nzuza said Home Affairs plans to continue ongoing reforms by further simplifying the processes with the setting up of more mobile units and self-service kiosks.

He noted: “Our mobile offices visited 1, 734 service points and 2, 196 schools. In the same financial year, mobile units collected a total of 241, 309 smart ID card applications as compared to 204, 317 during the 2022/23 financial year. The purchase of the additional 100 mobile units and the resources we are committing through this budget means that more citizens will have access to this convenient service.”

“We will also rollout the ground breaking 75 self-service Kiosks which have already been procured and are currently being configured with our Live Capture system. The Kiosks will increase our footprint and also alleviate queues.”

One novelty Home Affairs introduced to facilitate ID applications, according to Nzuza, is the Branch Appointment Booking System (BABS) which has been rolled out to over 204 modernized offices.

The deputy minister also explained efforts already deployed to facilitate birth registration, saying such measures will be expanded in the course of the new financial year. The country reported one million live birth registrations in 2022.

“Early Birth Registration is a societal responsibility. This budget allows us to provide our children, youth, citizens and residents their first issue of an ID document, birth certificate, marriage certificate, passports and ultimately death certificates completing their cycle of life,” he declared.

Apart from advancing work on birth registration and the issuance of various identity documents, Home Affairs says some funds from the budgetary allocation will be used to improve the country’s immigration infrastructure and management system, social protection interventions, and upskilling and capacity building for staff, among others.

Home Affairs’ plans to issue more smart ID cards in the next fiscal year is surely a positive announcement for those who currently struggle to receive social security benefits.

According to the South Africa Social Security Agency (SASSA), citizens without smart ID cards are finding it difficult completing biometric verification to get their benefits, The South African reports.

The biometric verification requirement for SASSA social relief grants has been sharply criticized by beneficiaries, the previous administration defended it saying it was a move against fraud and corrupt practices.

The new system went live in the Eastern Cape Province for a pilot program July 16. In an interview on SABC, crime expert and university don, Prof Jacob Mofokeng, supports the move, saying it should be given a try because the fraud level in the SASSA relief grants program is high.

Article Topics

birth registration  |  digital identity  |  government services  |  identity document  |  identity management  |  legal identity  |  South Africa