Naturalised South African citizens and lawful permanent residents, can for the first time today, apply for Smart Card IDs through the eHomeAffairs platform.
“This step marks the single most significant milestone yet
in Home Affairs’ exciting journey of digital transformation - with much more
still to come,” said the Home Affairs Department in a statement on Monday.
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PICTURE: Home Affairs Dept.This follows months of Information Technology (IT) reforms.
“For years, IT failures forced South Africans born abroad,
as well as permanent residents, to continue using only the insecure green
bar-coded ID book and excluded them from obtaining the more-secure Smart ID. It
also prevented them from using the eHomeAffairs platform to make bookings. In
rare cases, a small number of naturalised citizens were able to obtain Smart
IDs only after being granted permission by the Minister and following a tedious
manual process. ‘’
“But the department’s digital transformation drive has now
changed all of this and has delivered change for over 1.4 million eligible
South Africans and lawful permanent residents,” explained the department.
Home Affairs Minister, Leon Schreiber, described it as a
breakthrough in the department’s digital transformation reforms.
“Thanks to diligent work by our team, guided by our apex
priority of digital transformation, we have now brought about this major reform
within just a few months.”
He said the benefits of rectifying this inequality extended
beyond the 1.4 million direct beneficiaries.
“This is also a victory for improved national security.
Naturalised citizens and permanent residents were the last remaining groups of
people eligible for South African ID documents, who were excluded from
obtaining Smart IDs. Thanks to our redress of this long-standing injustice,
every eligible person in South Africa is now able to obtain a Smart ID for the
first time. This takes us much closer to fully adopting the Smart ID and doing away
with the green bar-coded ID book, thereby eliminating the fraud linked to this
document.”
Schreiber stressed that that the process is currently only
focused on applicants who are in possession of a green barcoded ID and are from
visa exempt countries, due to the ‘extremely high volumes of applications being
received.’
“Once volumes reduce, applicants from non-exempt countries
will also be assisted. The department will communicate when this next phase
opens for applications,” the department said.
Done By: Mitchum George
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