e-Voting conference: Schreiber's plan to ditch green ID book

HOME Affairs Minister, Dr Leon Schreiber, used his keynote address at the Electronic Voting for South Africa conference to tout some of the forthcoming developments being made by the department, and how these developments will likely impact a few of the policy considerations.

The e-Voting conference began on Monday with an address from the chairperson of the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), the CEO, Sy Mamabolo and an address from Schreiber.

Schreiber said that the Home Affairs eco-system has embarked on a purposeful reform journey built around digital transformation, seeking to automate and digitise as many processes as possible at Home Affairs, the Border Management Authority and the Government Printing Works.

"Over the past 8 months, we have worked tirelessly to lay the foundation of the reforms required to turn these institutions into digital first organisations. However, we have not spoken much about the IEC, as it should be, given its status as an independent Chapter 9 institution…As much as the IEC is an independent entity, it functions within that broader home affairs ecosystem."

Schreiber then touched on a few of the changes occurring at Home Affairs, and how this is set to impact the IEC, and how they should consider this when making policy considerations.

"Allow me to briefly mention a few of these changes that will have ramifications for the IEC. Firstly, we are moving determinedly to expand access to Smart IDs at a scale never seen before. We will do so by building on the successful pilot project that has rendered ID and passport services in about 30 bank branches over the past decade.

"It is now time to scale this to hundreds or even a thousand bank branches, so that all South Africans can obtain Smart IDs much closer to where they live. This will enable us to eventually discontinue the green bar-coded ID book, which is far more prone to fraud than the Smart ID," Schreiber said.

He anticipates that the results of this work should be felt by the IEC by the time of the next local government elections.

"Secondly, by the time of the next national and provincial elections in 2029, we want to have a fully-functional digital ID system.

"As announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his State of the Nation Address last month, Home Affairs is hard at work to develop the infrastructure required for a secure digital identity platform.

"This will enable not only enable South Africans to securely store their IDs and other official documents on a smartphone, but will also provide a verifiable credential for each citizen and permanent resident," Schreiber said. "This will enable Home Affairs to virtually certify the identity of every person in the country, based on their unique facial or fingerprint biometrics."

"I want to emphasise that this is a sequential process: first will come access to Smart IDs for all, then will come digital ID.

"The third reform that is particularly relevant to the IEC, are enhancements to the population register. A new National Identification Registration is on my desk as we speak.

"This Bill will reform the population register into a modern, digital-first instrument that will record the presence and biometrics of all people who are in our country."

The minister said that for too long, they’ve used a National Population Register that failed to adequately record the biometric information of everyone in South Africa.

He explained that the failure to have a so-called 'single view' of all people in the country is a major contributing factor to the risks associated with illegal immigration, including elections, because it enables foreigners to sojourn in the country without their biometrics being detected and stored.

"This reform will be coupled with the Electronic Travel Authorisation we aim to begin rolling out this year, which will eventually require every person who enters South Africa to provide their biometrics for capturing in a modern, new population register.

"Finally, the work of the Electoral Reform Consultation Panel continues apace. Once that process is concluded, I will table recommendations to Parliament that may result in further reforms aimed at bolstering the accountability of our electoral system."