Johannesburg – Naturalised South African citizens and lawful permanent residents – numbering more than 1.4 million – can now apply for SA Smart Card IDs.
Home Affairs Minister Dr. Leon Schreiber announced move on Sunday, (11 May 2025), saying: “For the first in South African history, naturalised citizens and lawful permanent residents will, when Home Affairs offices open on Monday, 12 May 2025, be able to apply for Smart Card IDs, including through the eHomeAffairs platform”.
Minister Schreiber said that following months of diligent Information Technology reforms, “this step marks the single most significant milestone yet on Home Affairs’ exciting journey of digital transformation, with much more still to come”.
He said for years, IT failures forced South Africans born abroad, as well as permanent residents, to continue using only the insecure green bar-coded ID book, and excluded them from obtaining the more-secure Smart ID.
“It also prevented them from using the eHomeAffairs platform to make bookings,” Minister Schreiber said.
“In rare cases, a small number of naturalised citizens were able to obtain Smart IDs only after being granted permission by the Minister and following a tedious manual process.”
The minister said the department’s digital transformation drive has now changed all of this and has delivered change for over 1.4 million eligible South Africans and lawful permanent residents.
He said for the first time ever, they will now be able to use eHomeAffairs and obtain Smart IDs like all other eligible persons.
Minister Schreiber said: “This breakthrough for our digital transformation reforms directly delivers dignity to over 1.4 million people, including hundreds of thousands of South African citizens, who had their dignity infringed for years by being treated unequally.
“For years, these South Africans were treated as second-class citizens by being excluded from access to the Smart ID and from eHomeAffairs, which effectively forced them to use only the green bar-coded ID despite the government’s stated intent to do away with this document over fraud concerns.
“Thanks to diligent work by our team, guided by our apex priority of digital transformation, we have now brought about this major reform within just a few months.”
Minister Schreiber added: “But the benefits of rectifying this inequality extend beyond these 1.4 million direct beneficiaries. This is also a victory for improved national security.
“Naturalised citizens and permanent residents were the last remaining groups of people eligible for South African ID documents, who were excluded from obtaining Smart IDs.
“Thanks to our redress of this long-standing injustice, every eligible person in South Africa is now able to obtain a Smart ID for the first time.
“This takes us much closer to fully adopting the Smart ID and doing away with the green bar-coded ID book, thereby eliminating the fraud linked to this document.”
Minister Schreiber said now that all citizens and lawful permanent residents are eligible for the Smart ID, what remains is to geographically expand access to all.
“The department is already hard at work to also deliver on this objective, by dramatically increasing the number of bank branches that take applications for Smart IDs and passports,” he said.
“It is clear that we are making ever more rapid progress in using digital transformation to deliver Home Affairs @ home.”
Minister Schreiber said to further support naturalised citizens and permanent residents obtain their Smart IDs, and to manage the expected increased volume, the department will operate for extended office hours on the following weekends:
- Saturday 17 May 2025: 08:00 – 13:00
- Saturday 24 May 2025: 08:00 – 13:00
- Saturday 31 May 2025: 08:00 – 13:00
