For three weekends this month Home Affairs will extend their operations to accommodate a large group of people applying for Smart IDs.
Naturalised South Africans and permanent residents can now obtain Smart ID cards from this week, Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber says.
For years, IT failures forced South Africans born abroad and permanent residents to continue using only the insecure green bar-coded ID book.
Schreiber said these individuals were excluded from obtaining the more secure Smart ID.
It also prevented them from using the eHomeAffairs platform to make bookings.
Dignity for over 1.4 million people
“This breakthrough in our digital transformation reforms directly delivers dignity to over 1.4 million people, including hundreds of thousands of South African citizens, who had their dignity infringed for years by being treated unequally.
“For years, these South Africans were treated as second-class citizens by being excluded from access to the Smart ID and from eHomeAffairs, which effectively forced them to use only the green bar-coded ID despite the government’s stated intent to do away with this document over fraud concerns,” he said.
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High volumes of applications expected
He said 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.
“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.
“For the first time ever, they will now be able to use eHomeAffairs and obtain Smart IDs like all other eligible persons,” he said.
Schreiber said the department of home affairs would extend its working hours on weekend in anticipation of large volumes of people who are expected to apply for their Smart IDs.
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