South Africans can now apply for a Smart ID Card at more than twice as many locations as before, following the expansion of the Department of Home Affairs’ Digital Partnership with Absa.

The expansion includes the launch of the country’s first bank-based Home Affairs mobile unit.

Absa is the fourth banking partner to join the department’s Digital Partnership. According to the department the new mobile unit will bring Smart ID services to remote, peri-urban and previously underserved communities. The initiative is intended to extend access to digital services beyond traditional Home Affairs offices.

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The partnership was launched in Tembisa on Wednesday 11 November. Dr Leon Schreiber, National Minister of Home Affairs, said the reforms are designed to make identity services more accessible.

“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. Our Home Affairs @ Home reform programme is changing that forever by bringing Home Affairs to where people live, work and bank.”

The Digital Partnership, which began on 9 March this year, has expanded to 327 participating bank branches in four and a half months. Together with 214 modernised Home Affairs offices there are now 541 locations offering Smart ID services, compared to 214 before the partnership.

Schreiber described this as the fastest expansion of access to Home Affairs services since 1994. The department expects the Digital Partnership to reach approximately 750 participating bank branches by the end of the year. Combined with Home Affairs offices, this would provide around 1 000 locations for Smart ID Card applications, nearly five times the number available two years ago.

The department also plans to expand the Digital Partnership before the end of the year to include applications for adult and minor passports, first-time Smart ID Card applications and, as a next milestone, home delivery of identity documents.

“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. “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 delivers dignity for all.”

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