Big announcement about declaring green ID books invalid

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber wants to expand smart ID access to all South Africans before the 2029 national and provincial elections.

He said doing so will enable South Africa to discontinue the green barcoded ID book and implement a fully-fledged digital ID system allowing residents to store their ID and other documents on their smartphones.

The Minister revealed some of his department’s plans while speaking at the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC’s) e-Voting Conference on Monday, 10 March 2025.

“We are moving determinedly to expand access to smart IDs to a scale never seen before,” said Schreiber.

“We will do so by building on the successful pilot project that has rendered ID and passport services in about 30 bank branches over the past decade, as well as the mobile units we have and the offices in malls that are now in existence.”

He said the time has come to scale up the initiatives to expand Home Affairs services to far more locations nationwide.

Schreiber said this would enable all South Africans to obtain smart IDs closer to where they live.

“This will enable us to eventually discontinue the green barcoded ID book, which is far more prone to fraud than the smart ID,” the Minister said.

“The result of this work, I believe, should be felt by the IEC by the time of the next local government elections in 2026/27. I hope you will be seeing many more voters with smart IDs as compared to those with the green ID book.”

He also highlighted his department’s progress in planning a digital identity system for South Africa. He said it is working hard to develop the digital infrastructure required to support it.

Schreiber emphasised that the implementation of a digital ID system would follow Home Affairs’ expansion of smart ID access to all South Africans.

“By the time of the next national and provincial elections in 2029, we want to have a fully-fledged digital ID system for South Africa,” he said.

“I want to also emphasise that this is a sequential process. First will come access to smart IDs for all, and then will come parallel and over time, digital ID.”

Schrieber said the digital ID system will enable South Africans to store their IDs and other official documents on a smart device and provide a verifiable credential for each citizen and permanent resident.

“I want to emphasise this point: a digital ID is not a photo on your phone of your smart ID,” he said.

“A digital ID is a verifiable credential through which you can confirm your identity to organs of state, private sector institutions, to make sure that you are who you say you are.”

Schreiber also gave an update on the Department of Home Affairs’ progress on enhancing the National Population Register, adding that he is currently perusing the associated bill.

“This bill will reform the population register into a modern, digital-first instrument that will record the presence of biometrics of all people who are in our country,” he said.

“It essentially becomes the repository for digital ID. The central storage space through which government, Home Affairs, can verify the identity of an individual South African.”

He explained that, beyond Home Affairs and the IEC, the system would be very effective in fighting fraud at entities like the South African Social Security Agency.

“What it must be able to do is enable you to take a photo of someone’s face and confirm through Home Affairs that the biometric matches the verifiable credential that signs their digital ID,” said Schreiber.