The Department of Home Affairs started replacing the green bar-coded identity documents (IDs) with smart ID cards on 18 July 2013. The new ID cards have better security features and will be extremely difficult to forge.
Minister Naledi Pandor with a prototype of the new smart ID card
Security features
The card body is secure and durable, made of quality polycarbonate materials which will prevent tampering.
It also has two forms of security features:
- The first is physical security features on the card body such as holograms, laser engraving and personal details which will provide visual verification of the card and easily identify tampered cards.
- Logical security features include fingerprint biometrics and biographic data which is embedded on the 80 kilobytes card chip.
Personalisation with laser engraving of demographic details and photographs makes the new card extremely difficult to forge or tamper with. The smartcard will cut down on the fraudulent use of fake or stolen IDs, which is a major concern.
Roll-out
The Department of Home Affairs will issue the smart ID card to new applicants as well reissue current ID holder with the new card. People older than 80 – the Mandela generation - will be the first to be issued with the new cards. Applicants will be invited to Home Affairs offices in stages, according to their dates of birth.
In the first phase of this project, 27 Home Affairs regional offices will process smartcard IDs, with other offices following suit over the next three years.
Minister Pandor said the plan is to issue the smartcard ID to all South Africans over the next eight years and to phase out the existing green ID book.
It is envisaged that the new smartcard process will take only three days, whereas the turnaround time on the old green barcoded ID was about 54 days after application. The Department of Home Affairs has said that it is likely to be able to produce three million ID cards a year.
National Population Register
The Department plays a critical role in maintaining national security through effective and efficient identity management. A major part of this process is an accurate National Population Register. Minister Pandor said that the new smartcard ID would greatly assist in this process. “This will be a major step towards creating a modern, reliable population register,“ she said.
The Government is also currently cleaning up its National Population Register by encouraging citizens with duplicate identities to seek assistance in resolving this matter as well as to call upon citizens to ensure they are accurately recorded in the National Population Register through fingerprint verification.
More information
- Statement by Minister Naledi Pandor, 4 July 2013
- Frequently asked questions
- The National Population Registration Campaign
- SA Government News Agency stories
- People with disabilities to get smart ID cards, 8 November 2013
- Ministers, premiers apply for smart ID cards, 17 October 2013
- Home Affairs issues smart IDs to the elderly, 15 October 2013
- Home Affairs calls for patience as smart ID offices open, 15 October 2013
- Zuma calls on S Africans to embrace new smart card ID, 8 July 2013
- New IDs to honour Madiba's legacy, 4 July 2013
- Let's make Madiba proud – Cabinet, 2 July 2013
- Pandor first to get smart ID card, 4 June 2013
- Successful bidders for smart ID cards announced, 23 May 2013
- Smart ID cards to improve national security, 16 May 2013
- New smart ID card to be introduced this year, 9 May 2013
- Home Affairs on track with smart card IDs, 2 November 2012
- Photo galleries
