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Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber says that "severe IT constraints" prevent his department from issuing smart ID cards to naturalised citizens and permanent residents. This is holding back the project to declare South Africa's old and insecure green ID books invalid, as Home Affairs can't invalidate the venerable ID book until everyone can obtain a replacement smart ID card. Besides the cost of operating two different ID printing systems, South Africa wants to eliminate the green ID book because it has become an immense source of ID fraud. Smile ID's 2025 Digital Identity Fraud in Africa report revealed that fraud rates for South Africa's green ID book were 500% higher than for smart IDs. The firm said the green ID book is historically vulnerable due to weak security features. Last year, Smile ID's 2024 Digital Identity Fraud report showed that the green ID book was the most targeted in Africa for fraud, including using stolen identities to open bank accounts and apply for welfare. Smile ID said fraudsters regularly targeted national IDs because they were the most common form of government identification and mandatory for most adults. In a recent written Parliamentary question, ACDP MP Wayne Thring asked Schreiber why naturalised citizens were currently ineligible for smart IDs, and what was being done about it. "Home Affairs is acutely aware of, and regrets, the insecurity and distress this issue is causing," Schreiber stated. "Since assuming office, I have directed that work be sped up to enable all qualifying persons to obtain the more secure smart ID cards," he continued. "However, severe IT constraints have emerged as a major obstacle in this regard, and urgent work is ongoing to resolve the challenges." Schreiber said failures by their current IT service provider is holding back Home Affairs' ability to deliver the required changes to allow naturalised citizens and permanent residents to obtain smart IDs. "This is being addressed with the necessary urgency," he assured. "While work is being done to expand access to all through IT system changes, the department does assist naturalised citizens with smart ID cards through invitations to prospective applicants," Schreiber explained. "However, the process entails a manual verification process that limits access. The issue is receiving top priority." The SITA problem Although Schreiber did not name the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) in his latest Parliamentary response, the minister has not minced words in his past criticism of the state-owned company. During his speech responding to President Cyril Ramaphosa's State of the Nation Address, Schreiber said that SITA's monopoly was suffocating technological innovation. "We welcome the president's embrace of digital transformation in his State of the Nation Address, but this must include urgent regulatory reform to the monopoly held by SITA," he said. This came after Schreiber previously described SITA as an "artificial construct that stands squarely in the way of technological progress". "The model of imposing a state monopoly over digital technologies is simply not fit for purpose in the digital age," he said. Schreiber also said criticising and blaming Home Affairs for IT failures was unfair. "Even as we move with urgency to reform technological aspects under our control, our efforts will fall short for as long as we cannot maintain, procure and properly manage our own IT infrastructure," he said. Schreiber's predecessor, Aaron Motsoaledi, had a similar run-in with SITA over issues at Home Affairs sites in 2022. SITA hit back at Schreiber's criticism with the same explanation it gave in response to Motsoaledi's years ago. It says Home Affairs experiences system downtime because it chose the cheapest packages with the lowest service level agreements. However, Home Affairs said it couldn't afford SITA's more expensive gold- or platinum-level support packages. Home Affairs digital revolution While Home Affairs is working to address its IT problems, Schreiber said he would also dramatically expand the eHomeAffairs programme this year. eHomeAffairs is the department's partnership with banks that allows citizens to apply for and collect their smart IDs and passports from participating bank branches. Schreiber explained that the partnership has been limited to around 30 bank branches around the country for almost a decade. "This must become hundreds if not thousands of bank branches. I want every village, town, city, and suburb in South Africa to have access to Home Affairs services in a local bank branch," said Schreiber. "I believe this will reduce the pressure on our offices and alleviate the long queues. Not to mention greatly expanding our footprint." Schreiber said another goal for 2025 is for documents to introduce a delivery option for documents. "It is already accepted practice that if you order a new bank card, it gets delivered to your home or office for a fee," he said. In addition to making Home Affairs' services more convenient to access, Schreiber said he wanted to use technology to further combat fraud and identity theft. Schreiber said any process that allows or requires human intervention opens the door for fraud. "It is only possible for someone to steal an ID number or engage in fraudulent activity like swopping out photos because the system has gaps that allow for human intervention," he previously told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs. "Until such time as Home Affairs has been transformed into a digital-first department, these abuses will keep happening." He also said that digitally transforming Home Affairs has been accompanied by cracking down on individuals perpetrating fraud in the department. Schreiber said there had been dozens of disciplinary cases and arrests in the past year, ensuring that people there are consequences for defrauding the system. "Instances like these - and potentially much worse - will keep happening for as long as Home Affairs processes are manual, paper-based, and vulnerable to human discretion," he said. |