Say goodbye to green ID books in South Africa

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has significantly scaled up its Smart ID rollout over the past year, with 2025 seeing a record 4 million cards issued.

This marks the highest rate in the department’s history, with the DHA showing no signs of slowing down in 2026.

On Wednesday, 28 January, the DHA revealed that it issued 4,002,964 Smart ID cards in 2025, a 17% increase from the 3,427,468 issued in 2024. 

The department said its 2025 performance is about 1.3 million more than the number of Smart IDs issued during the 2023 and 2022 calendar years, respectively.

“This historic breakthrough represents the latest milestone under the department’s vision to deliver Home Affairs @ home through the pursuit of digital transformation,” the DHA said.

One of the key upgrades introduced under the Home Affairs @ home initiative has been the department’s investment in repairing the Online Verification Service (OVS).

This service was previously underfunded and abused by some external users, making it difficult to verify South Africans’ identities and scale up the rollout of Smart IDs.

“Correcting this has led to higher uptime and better performance of the population register at Home Affairs offices, directly contributing to giving more South Africans access to Smart IDs than ever before,” the DHA said.

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber explained that the department’s 2025 milestone “demonstrates how our commitment to digital transformation is expanding inclusion and access at a scale never seen before”.

“Thanks to the ongoing digital transformation of Home Affairs, over four million more people gained the ability to securely open a bank account, access employment, and obtain social grants in 2025.”

Following the milestone reached in 2025, the DHA is now focused on enhancing access to Smart IDs even further.

No signs of slowing down

The department is currently in the final phase of preparatory work for the rollout of its new digital partnership with South Africa’s banking sector.

This partnership, which was updated in 2025 with several of the country’s biggest banks on board, will aim to make smart ID services available in 1,000 bank branches across the country.

This will enable even more citizens to access Smart IDs at bank branches close to where they live, significantly broadening access to these services.

The main reason for the DHA’s focus on Smart ID rollouts is to replace South Africans’ green ID books, with the department looking to completely phase out the older form of ID.

MyBroadband previously reported that the DHA aimed to replace around 38 million green ID books in rotation in 2013. 

Schreiber has frequently explained that Smart IDs are vastly more secure than the fraud-prone green barcoded ID book. 

“The green bar-coded ID book, which the Smart ID is intended to replace, has become a soft target for fraudsters and is estimated to be 500% more vulnerable to fraud than the Smart ID,” he said.

However, obtaining Smart IDs has historically been a difficult task for many South Africans, with very few Home Affairs offices able to offer the service.

“In fact, when I assumed office, I found that nearly a third of existing Home Affairs offices do not even have the capability to handle Smart ID applications, with the result that new green IDs are still being produced despite the risks,” Schreiber previously said. 

This is where the DHA’s ‘Home Affairs @ home initiative’ becomes critical, as it is aimed at lessening the strain on Home Affairs’ physical branches and modernising routine processes like ID and passport renewals.

“Our new digital partnership model is set to change all this by enabling South Africans to obtain smart IDs from hundreds of bank branches around the country, and from digital banking applications, enhancing access particularly in rural and underserved communities,” the minister said.