NOORDWESTER – LICHTENBURG - The Department of Home Affairs has acknowledged persistent issues for permanent residents and naturalised citizens in South Africa regarding getting a smart ID, saying that technical constraints are delaying the process.
Responding to a written parliamentary question from the ACDP’s Wayne Thring, Home Affairs Minister, Leon Schreiber said the department was “acutely aware” of the issue and the distress it is causing some applicants.
While the DHA has expanded the rollout of its smart ID and passport systems to various branches and satellite offices at banks and shopping malls, the cards are still only easily issued to South African citizens.
Naturalised citizens and permanent residents are still struggling to gain access, with several frustrated Business Tech readers complaining about being turned away at branches.
The department has sent notices to some of these residents, inviting them to apply for smart IDs, but Schreiber said that IT constraints have become a serious obstacle.
“Since assuming office, I have directed that work be sped up to enable all qualifying persons to obtain the more secure smart ID cards,” he said.
“However, severe IT constraints have emerged as a major obstacle in this regard, and urgent work is ongoing to resolve the challenges.”
Schreiber said that the failures of the current IT service provider have emerged as a serious obstacle to the DHA’s ability to deliver the required changes to enable naturalised citizens and permanent residents to obtain cards.
However, he stressed that is “being addressed with the necessary urgency”.
He said that while work is being done to expand access to all through IT system changes, the DHA is assisting naturalised citizens with the smart IDs, but this is a manual process done through invitations to prospective applicants.
He said the process entails a manual verification that limits access, but he repeated that this is a “top priority” for the department to resolve.
