Good news for South Africans with green ID books

South Africans can now visit 541 locations across the country to obtain a smart ID card and replace their old and fraud-prone green ID books.

This includes 327 bank branches and 214 modernised Home Affairs offices, which all offer smart ID services.

This comes as the Department of Home Affairs is expanding its partnership with banks, with Absa having been the latest to join.

It forms part of the Department of Home Affairs’ “Home Affairs @ home” reform programme, which includes a digital partnership with major South African banks.

Since the programme’s launch, FNB, Standard Bank, Absa, Investec, Nedbank, and Discovery Bank have operated successful pilot sites at 30 bank branches across the country.

In 2026, the Department of Home Affairs expanded this programme significantly, with Capitec, Standard Bank, FNB, and now Absa rolling out smart ID services in their branches.

Absa has been the latest to join, sealing its partnership with the Department of Home Affairs on 22 July 2026.

Absa’s first branch with smart ID capabilities is located in Tembisa, with the launch attended by Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber.

At the launch, Schreiber said his department’s Home Affairs @ home reform programme is bringing Home Affairs to where people live, work and bank.

“For far too long, accessing Home Affairs meant taking a taxi or a bus, missing a day of work, standing in long queues, and spending hours simply to apply for an identity document,” he said.

He pointed out that, in four and a half months, the department has expanded to 327 participating bank branches. 

Along with the department’s 214 modernised Home Affairs offices, South Africans can now access smart ID services at 541 locations.

This is 2.54 times more than the 214 locations that offered these services before the partnership began. “This is the fastest expansion of access to Home Affairs services since the dawn of democracy,” Schreiber said.

He pointed out that the digital partnership has already added more smart ID service points than the entire modernised Home Affairs network that existed when the reform programme began.

What comes next

By the end of 2026, the Department of Home Affairs wants to expand the digital partnership to 750 bank branches.

Including the department’s offices, this will make smart ID services available at 1,000 locations across the country – five times the number of access points available two years ago.

All of the banks that currently have smart-ID-enabled branches will continue to roll out these services to some of their other branches.

Nedbank also told MyBroadband that it plans to go live with its first smart-ID-enabled branches in the third quarter of 2026.

The Department of Home Affairs said the partnership will also expand to include adult and minor passports and first-time Smart ID Card applications before the end of 2026.

The next major milestone, the department said, is delivering identity documents directly to citizens’ homes.

“Through Home Affairs @ home, we are making it easier than ever before for South Africans to replace the fraud-prone green barcoded ID book with the secure Smart ID Card,” Schreiber said. 

The Department of Home Affairs has been encouraging South Africans to replace their green ID books with smart ID cards.

This is because the green ID books are far more vulnerable to fraud, recognised as one of the most defrauded documents in Africa.

These books are easy to forge and manipulate because they are paper-based, and criminals exploit these weaknesses to obtain fraudulent ID books for foreigners. 

In contrast, the smart ID card is more sophisticated and less vulnerable to fraud because it has a microchip that securely stores the rightful owner’s biometric data.

“Together, we are closing the chapter on the fraud-prone green barcoded ID book and opening a new chapter of secure, digitalised identity services that deliver dignity for all,” Schreiber said.