Home Affairs signs up Capitec and FNB as first banking partners to deliver Smart ID and Passport services at hundreds more bank branches and through banking apps
The Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber, is proud to announce Capitec Bank and First National Bank as the first banks that have elected to sign up to the Department’s new digital partnership model that will expand access to Smart ID and Passport services from the existing 30 to hundreds more bank branches in both urban and rural areas across South Africa, as well as to digital banking applications.
In fulfilment of the target set by Cabinet in the Medium-Term Development Plan, which tasks Home Affairs with expanding its services to 1 000 bank branches by 2029, the Director-General of the Department, Mr Tommy Makhode, on 30 April 2025 wrote to the Chief Executive Officers of ABSA, African Bank, TymeBank, Capitec Bank, Discovery Bank, First National Bank, Investec Bank, Nedbank, and Standard Bank, inviting them to join this transformative, digital-first new phase of the Department’s existing collaboration with the banking sector. This collaboration dates back more than a decade and has, until now, seen the successful delivery of Smart ID and Passport services at only 30 branches across five different banks.
However, that original model relied on the costly duplication of Home Affairs staff and hardware inside bank branches, and failed to take advantage of technology to dramatically expand services into all rural and urban areas where bank branches already exist, as well as onto secure banking apps that have come to be widely used across society.
As the first banks to respond positively to the invitation to further enhance the long-standing partnership between Home Affairs and the banking sector, Minister Schreiber will visit Capitec and FNB this week to provide further information on how this reform will benefit all South Africans. It marks the beginning of the end for long travelling distances to reach Home Affairs services, for long queues, as well as for the Green ID book with its unacceptable vulnerability to fraud and identity theft, and the next step in the new digital-first era of public service delivery that the Government of National Unity is building.
Members of the media are invited to attend the following two events:
Date: Tuesday, 12 August
Time: 12:30 to 13:15
Venue: Capitec Head Office,
5 Neutron Road, Techno Park, Stellenbosch
RSVP (by Tuesday, 12 August 2025, at 09:00): https://forms.gle/dpCLU9qUeUzDa37x5
Date: Wednesday, 13 August
Time: 10:30 to 11:15
Venue: FNB Portside Tower,
5 Buitengracht Street, Cape Town
RSVP (by Tuesday, 12 August 2025, at 15:30): https://forms.gle/EAdRrBCNYw77MUXN7
The Department further reiterates its call for all other banks to similarly take up the invitation to work together, to ensure that all South Africans have access to Smart ID and Passport services in their own communities.
This reform marks a critical milestone on our journey to unlock the power of digital transformation to deliver Home Affairs @ home.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Duwayne Esau – Spokesperson for the Minister
Cell number: 077 606 9702
#ServiceDeliveryZA
