Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber has assured Parliament that the department is intensifying efforts to improve service delivery, starting with eliminating long queues through collaboration with banks on the rollout of the Digital ID.
The Department of Home Affairs is set to launch the first group of bank branches offering Home Affairs services under a new digital partnership model within the next few weeks.
“This will mark the beginning of the end of long queues at Home Affairs. Under the new digital partnership, you will be able to walk into your local bank branch, including in rural and underserved areas, and apply for a Smart ID in as little as three minutes.
“The Home Affairs digital revolution is also enhancing border security and immigration management. With the core biometric technology already live for the citizenship portal, we now shift our focus to building the front-end user interface,” the Minister said on Tuesday.
Speaking in Parliament during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) Debate, Schreiber said the Digital ID will allow South Africans to access enabling documents on their mobile phones and remotely verify their identities using secure facial recognition technology.
“Of course, even in a digital world, there remains a need for greater access to secure physical documents, including the Smart ID and passport.
“The track record we have built over the past 20 months is also the reason I can tell the House today you have seen nothing yet. In 2026, the best is about to come.
“As a result of our reforms to the Online Verification Service and other upgrades to internal systems, I can today announce that turnaround times for Smart ID and passport applications have been cut by an incredible 66.7%,” Schreiber said.
South Africa is set to launch its first-ever Digital ID system this year, which aims to modernise government services and enhance national security.
The initiative, announced by the Minister last year during his department’s Budget Vote, will eliminate identity fraud and improve accessibility for all citizens. It aims to modernise government services, eliminate identity fraud, and improve accessibility for all South Africans.
The Department of Home Affairs last year submitted a Digital ID policy to Cabinet for approval to conduct public hearings.
The initiative is also part of a broader vision to transform how South Africans interact with their government, moving from manual to digital solutions.
Key features include:
Digital versions of essential documents, such as IDs and passports, allowing citizens to access services online or through smart devices.
The system is expected to phase out the traditional green ID book, which is vulnerable to fraud, and replace it with a modern, secure alternative.
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