Good news for South Africans who apply for a new passport or smart ID

South Africans will soon be able to obtain smart IDs and passports from hundreds of bank branches nationwide.

At least one bank, Capitec, also plans to offer these services to everyone, not just clients. This will see routine Home Affairs services become far more accessible for South Africans across the country.

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber told Daily Investor that his department’s new digital partnership model is set to usher in significant change.

The department’s ‘Home Affairs @ Home’ initiative is set to enable South Africans to obtain smart IDs from hundreds of bank branches around the country.

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has also set its sights on expanding these services to digital banking applications, further enhancing access, particularly for rural and underserved communities.

“That is why this digital-first reform is the most pro-inclusion and pro-poor step that Home Affairs has taken in many years,” Schreiber said.

When he assumed office, nearly a third of existing Home Affairs offices did not even have the capability to handle smart ID applications, meaning new green ID books were still being produced despite the fraud risks associated with them.

Therefore, the DHA’s expanded eHomeAffairs partnership with local banks will play a significant role in its drive to phase out the green ID books and increase access to smart ID services.

The DHA introduced the eHomeAffairs system in 2016. Since then, FNB, Standard Bank, Absa, Investec, Nedbank, and Discovery Bank have operated successful pilot sites.

However, only 30 bank branches in South Africa currently offer passport and smart ID renewals.

This is despite the pilot project’s runaway success, with Schreiber saying the only complaints he received were about too few booking slots.

Therefore, the DHA is looking to expand this project, with a medium-term goal to extend these services to 1,000 bank branches.

This will also require the rollout of a new live capture system model, which the department hopes will accelerate the adoption of Smart IDs in the country.

So far, seven banks have signed up for the expanded partnership, namely Capitec, FNB, Standard Bank, Absa, Nedbank, African Bank and Tyme Bank.

Open to all

While it is not yet clear how these services will look from bank to bank, Capitec CEO Graham Lee told Daily Investor that his bank plans to open them to all South Africans.

When the expanded DHA partnership was announced in August 2025, Capitec and FNB were the first banks to sign up.

Lee said Capitec offering these services at its branches will benefit all of the bank’s clients, and even non-clients.

“It benefits all of our clients, and when we roll it out to all of our branches, you will not need to be a Capitec client to use it,” he told Daily Investor following the recent release of the bank’s interim results.

“We see it as good for the community, and if people recognise that and feel well towards us and then become Capitec clients because of it, that’s fantastic. But it’s more that we see there is real value in it for the person themselves.”

Lee added that a strong ID system is also beneficial for the country as a whole due to the reduced risk of fraud.

“We support that as a vital part of growing the economy, and particularly growing the sort of digitisation of the economy, because the start of a digital identity is a solid biometric and physical identity,” he explained.

“So, it’s definitely good for the country as a whole, and it is good for us in terms of that identity that you can rely upon and the systems in which that identity sits being reliable and safe.” 

Schreiber told Daily Investor that the green ID book, one of the most defrauded documents in Africa, has inherent vulnerabilities, while the smart ID is “exponentially more secure”.

“Delivering on our digital-first reforms so that everyone can get a smart ID will dramatically reduce the risks of identity theft and financial fraud inherent to the outdated green ID book,” he said.