We take this opportunity to welcome all members of the media present with us here in Cape Town and Pretoria to the Home Affairs weekly media briefing. A special welcome is extended to our guests.
As you all are aware, the Home Affairs department has over the past few months been involved in efforts aimed at rolling out the smart ID cards to the people of our country. Since the launch of the smart ID card, on Nelson Mandela Day 18 July 2013, we have extended the roll-out of the cards to a few sectors of our society.
Our briefing today takes place against the background of the declaration of 3 December as the official National Day of Persons with Disabilities and the end of the National Disability Rights Awareness Month which called on all of us to reflect on the role we have played over the past year in creating a better life for persons with disabilities as equal citizens.
Accordingly and in this context, we have convened this briefing with this representative group of people with disabilities to brief you about steps the department of Home Affairs has undertaken with regard to the extension of the roll-out of the Smart ID card to this sector and as part of efforts to create awareness of the incidence of citizens living with various forms of disabilities.
As part of our efforts to ensure quality and responsive service delivery to all sectors of our society, the department has ensured as far as possible that our online application process is accommodating of persons with disability. In designing the smart card we have together with the department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities ensured that the new smart ID dard has Braille features. This will enable visually impaired people to easily differentiate the smart card from other similar cards in their possession. In this context, the roll-out of the smart ID card must be viewed within the context of the consolidation of the restoration of national identity, citizenship and dignity which were denied to the majority of our citizens by successive racist regimes.
Today we are proud to hand over the smart ID card to a representative group of people living with disabilities. They join the first group of people who are among the first recipients of the smart ID cards.
Since the public launch of the roll-out of the smart ID cards on 18 July – Nelson Mandela Day - the department has since extended the roll-out to more sectors of our people including among others a representative group of senior citizens, members of the Home Affairs portfolio committee, cabinet ministers and deputy ministers, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, the Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, former Ministers of Home Affairs, Buthelezi and Mapisa-Nqakula.
Our team is currently working round the clock to upgrade infrastructure at various offices to enable them to process smart card applications. We are happy to announce that in addition to the original three offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town, on the 2nd of December the following offices have come on line: Eastern Cape - Port Elizabeth, Umtata and King William’s Town; Free State – Bloemfontein; and Wynberg in the Western Cape.
We wish to recall the following:
- In addition our Minister Naledi Pandor has announced the extension of waiver of fees of R140-00 to 16 year-olds and pensioners who are 60 years and above.
- The roll-out of the smart ID card will take a few years so the public is called upon to exercise patience.
- Citizens should await invitations to come to Home Affairs offices to apply for the smart ID card.
- Applicants will be invited in accordance with their months of birth.
- The green-bar coded ID remains a legal form of identity until a formal declaration is made in this regard and once all citizens on the NPR are issued ID cards.
- When applying for the smart ID citizens will be expected to bring along their old green-bar coded IDs.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, it is thus my singular honour to preside over the process of the handover of the Smart ID cards to our special guests today, on behalf of the Department of Home Affairs.
Names:
Ms Rhulani Baloyi
Mr Obert Maguvhe
Mr Babsy Mlangeni
Mr Jace Nair
Adv Bokankatla Malatji
Ms Cathy Donaldson
Mr Asaph Dikgale
Mr Siva Moodley
Media enquiries contact:
Ronnie Mamoepa
Cell: 082-990-4853
E-mail: Ronnie.mamoepa@dha.gov.za
