Smart IDs handed out
The first smart ID cards are handed out to a select few. Esther Mabitsele, who is more than a century old, is one of many who are happy with the innovation.
The capital city was chosen this week to be the first to have a Home Affairs office able to issue the new smart ID cards and one of the first people to receive hers, was 102-year-old Esther Mabitsela.
The department has decided to issue the smart IDs to a pool of about 100 000 people first, all of which are either first-time applicants, senior citizens, senior media people or government leaders. Citizens not invited to apply were urged to wait for an announcement next year before attempting to obtain a smart ID.
The Home Affairs office at Byron’s Place, on the corner of Sophie De Bruyn and Nana Sita streets in the inner city, was the first to be declared ready to service the public with smart ID cards on Tuesday.
Minister of Home Affairs, Naledi Pandor, unveiled the office, earmarked for the first phase of the smart ID card applications, to the public before she unveiled another office in Harrison Street in Johannesburg on the same day.
Home Affairs Director-General Mkuseli Apleni unveiled the Cape Town Barrack Street office at the same time.
The three offices have been renovated to be able process applications for the new smart ID cards.
Home Affairs has in the past few months indicated that applications for smart ID cards would only be open to the public once their offices were properly fitted with live capture systems and had the savers that are connected to the national database.
They intend to open 26 new offices around the country by the end of November. Home Affairs is still running a pilot project in issuing smart ID cards to ensure that it can handle the larger numbers that will come later. “We believe that when we have gone through this pilot pool, we will be certain that we are absolutely system-ready for the population of South Africa,” the minister said.
The training of the Home Affairs staff members to process smart ID Cards is still underway. The minister said that some members are not fully computer literate and require further training before the programme can commence.
Applications will be controlled by means of an invite according to the citizen’s month of birth to prevent an influx too large. This is expected to begin sometime next year.
At the Pretoria office, the minister issued smart ID cards to 14 senior citizens who came from local townships such as Atteridgeville and Mamelodi. Mabitsela was joined by 62-year-old Judas Dilebo, who said he was excited to have the new smart ID as it would now be difficult for criminals to commit identity theft.
“The new ID means security to me,” he said.
The roll-out of the smart ID cards will take place over a number of years, and the public is called upon to exercise patience in this regard.
They will be issued freely to 16-year-old first-time applicants, but all other citizens are expected to pay R140.
Since the launch of the smart ID card at the Union Buildings on 18 July, which coincided with Nelson Mandela day, Home Affairs has been busy revamping the infrastructure of their offices across the country to handle the large volume of expected applications.
