Home Affairs gives green ID books two years as 341,000 smart cards sit uncollected
Deputy Director-General Thulani Mavuso says the bar-coded book is too easy to forge, and the clock on replacing it has already started.
BusinessTech reports that South Africans still carrying the green bar-coded identity book have been given a two-year window to move to a smart ID card, with the Department of Home Affairs saying the older document will no longer be usable after that point.
The warning came from the department’s Deputy Director-General for Operations, Thulani Mavuso, in an interview with Newzroom Afrika. He said the switch away from the green book is already running, and that the minister will announce the precise dates in due course.
“The message is that we have to collect those documents because in the next two years, they will not be able to use their green ID book,” Mavuso said.
His advice to holders was not to wait for that announcement. Apply now, he said, rather than in the last months before the book stops being accepted.
Why the book is being retired
Home Affairs has identified the green ID book as a document that is too easily altered, and that is the reason for the phase-out. The smart ID card is the replacement, and the department has been pushing citizens towards it for years.
Mavuso said the department has issued roughly 34 million smart ID cards since they were introduced. About 25 million of those were reissues to people who already held an identity document. A further 9,7 million were first-time applications from young people reaching the age at which they become eligible for an ID and to register to vote.
The application network has widened beyond Home Affairs offices. Participating bank branches issued about 700,000 smart ID cards between March and the second week of September, which has added collection and application points around the country.
The cards already waiting
One figure stands out against the drive to get people onto the new document. More than 341,000 smart ID cards are sitting uncollected at Home Affairs offices, and some of them have been there for close to ten years.
Mavuso said a large share of the uncollected first-time cards belong to young people who applied after turning 16. He directed his appeal at their parents.
“I think we just want to really encourage the parents that while your child has already turned 16, they’ve applied for the smart ID card, please collect it,” he said.
That matters beyond the card itself. A young person without the document in hand cannot use it to open a bank account, register for tertiary study or take up formal employment, and the department’s own figures show the card is often ready and waiting while the applicant is not.
What the card will be needed for
Mavuso said the smart ID card will carry more weight in daily life once the green book falls away, particularly at financial institutions.
“It is critical that a person carries this document because it’s going to be the only legal document that you can be able to show in terms of the transactions, particularly with financial institutions and others,” he said.
For anyone whose ID has been lost or damaged, Home Affairs can issue a temporary identification certificate while a replacement application is processed. Mavuso said the certificate can also be used for voting purposes.
The department has also put measures in place to ease collection, including priority for elderly people, people with disabilities and children.
The next step
The minister is still to announce the formal timelines for when the green ID book stops being accepted. Until that announcement, the department’s position is that holders should apply for a smart ID card and collect it, rather than let the two-year window run down.
