Home Affairs set to roll out Smart Card, says Minister Nkosazana Zuma in Budget Speech
26 April 2012
The Department of Home Affairs will pilot the new Smart ID Card this year and roll it to the
citizenry from next year. This was announced by Minister Nkosazana Zuma during
her budget speech in Parliament on Wednesday.
During her address
entitled “From Dompas to Smart ID Card”, the Minister said the smart card
represents a complete break with the apartheid past in which people had to
carry dompas documents to remain in the urban areas.
The new smart
card, said the Minister, is a key element in the National Identity System that
will replace the current civic and immigration identity systems. “The National
Identity System will enable us to digitally capture biometric and biographical
details of all South Africans or foreign nationals, which will be stored in one
integrated system. The system will be linked to systems for movement control,
permitting as well as asylum seeker and refugee management,” said Minister Zuma.
Minister Zuma also thanked 556 762 parents who registered
their children within 30 days of birth in the past year, representing almost
51% of the total number of new born children. “We hope that increasingly more
people abide by law and register their babies within 30 days of birth. “She also
appealed to all children turning 16 years of age to apply for their first
Identity Documents (IDs). “A total number of 2 266 461 IDs (first and
re-issues) were issued in 2011/12,” said the Minister.
