Why the end of the green ID book is on the cards by 2022

Source: Talk of the Town, 13/05/2017

Don’t get too attached to your ID book because in five years no one
will have one.


The Department of Home Affairs wants to replace all 38 million green
booklets with smart ID cards by 2022.


Since the project was rolled out in 2013‚ some 6 million smart IDs
have been issued‚ but the department plans to do half that amount this
year alone.


Now any South African-born citizen can apply for the identity document
free of charge‚ with home affairs promising to have it ready for
collection within a fortnight. File photo Image by: Marianne
Pretorius.


It issued Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete with her smart ID card in
Johannesburg on Monday.


Now any South African-born citizen can apply for the identity document
free of charge‚ with home affairs promising to have it ready for
collection within a fortnight.


The move comes as the department tries to modernise its systems‚
aiming to eliminate the security limitations of regular ID books‚
which can easily be tampered with and manipulated for fraudulent
purposes.


Home affairs spokesman Thabo Mokgola said the new ID cards would be
highly secured and produced in an end-to-end process‚ which is “wholly
automated and supported by a live capture system”.


“For instance it has a card chip which is readable and verifiable‚
with biographic data embedded on it‚ and thus it is not easily
manipulated or forged.”


Mokgola said among the numerous advantages of the smart ID was the
secure‚ paperless application process‚ which eliminated the
possibility of human error.


“The additional security features incorporated in the smart ID card
eliminate the possibility of forgery or tampering (as experienced with
green book identity documents)‚ ensuring that fraud and identity theft
are eliminated. The resulting integrity of the smart ID card therefore
also increases the security and credibility of the national population
register as a whole‚” he said.


There will be no restrictions or qualifying criteria for application
of the card‚ other than being born in South Africa‚ and applications
can also be made at certain branches of the four major banks.