South Africa behind schedule on digital ID rollout under MyMzansi roadmap

South Africa’s plans to roll out a digital ID under the MyMzansi Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Roadmap are reported to be lagging after the country missed an April 2025 deadline to finalize and get the legal framework for the initiative approved by cabinet.

Local news outlet MyBroadband reports, citing a Home Affairs Department source who said the digital ID draft policy document is still being worked on, and will be summited to cabinet once the work is completed. No timeline has been given for the completion of the process.

According to the MyMzansi plan, the South African government had projected to have a functional national digital ID system before the end of last year.

With that deadline passed without the system in place, the government is now racing to finalize the draft policy, get cabinet’s greenlight, release it for public comments, before having it enacted and operationalized.

As officials have explained, the digital ID, when operational, will significantly change how citizens identify themselves and get access to public and private sector services. It will be a biometrics-based digital ID that will facilitate access to services by eliminating the need for users to show physical IDs such as the Smart ID when seeking services.

There’s also a plan to integrate the digital ID with a plethora of services across several sectors including health, education, and finance, before 2026 comes to a close.

Recently, during a press briefing to evaluate the country’s Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP) 2024-2029, the Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Hon Maropene Ramokgopa, outlined the road so far covered on the country’s national development and digital transformation journey.

Among other things, she cited the launch of the MyMzansi DPI plan, an ongoing pilot on data-sharing among government entities, as well as progress in the rollout of the digital ID program and other digital services. She announced that going forward, more focus in the MTDP will be on enhancing access to high-impact digital services.

The MyMzansi DPI roadmap is a blueprint designed to transform how citizens access services from government and the private sector. It runs in two phases, from 2025–2027 and 2028–2030 with the core objectives to establish a functional national digital ID system, enable real-time data exchange, create a single platform to access a multiplicity of government services and make sure no citizen is excluded from the digital transformation process.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometrics  |  digital government  |  digital ID  |  digital public infrastructure  |  MyMzansi  |  South Africa