On 1 October, Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber unveiled South Africa’s first working Digital ID prototype, demonstrating his own credential live on a smartphone in Johannesburg. Citizens cannot get one yet, as issuance is slated for the 2027/28 financial year. Making the switch to digital will be voluntary with the physical Smart ID card remaining in use.
The Digital ID has not come out of nowhere. It is the latest chapter in a long, uneven journey towards the digitalisation of identity, in a country where identity documents have never been neutral. From 2013, Home Affairs began replacing the green ID book with the Smart ID card. The smart card was meant to curb fraud and identity theft while giving the databases a biometric layer, readying them for a digital ID.
Over the past year Research ICT Africa has been conducting on-the-ground research with rural and peri-urban residents in the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. We sought to understand people’s lived experiences around obtaining identification documentation and accessing the Smart ID Card. We held nine focus groups and interviewed experts from government, business and civil society. What we found suggests that the success of the digital ID will depend on more than technology itself. It will depend on whether it removes the barriers that people already face in obtaining, replacing or using identification, rather than just digitising them.
For many South Africans, possessing an ID is a daily necessity for life. It is the precondition for grants, banking, work and even burial; without it, one participant said, “you’re illegal in your own country”. Yet, a significant number of those we spoke to did not have any form of ID or still had the green ID book. When asked why, the answers were illuminating: Many had given up trying to get one, or had lost theirs and found the replacement process inaccessible.
There was also confusion and concern about the continued validity of the green ID book. Respondents shared that they were being told by various officials that their green book was going to be invalid soon, that the next time they came with their green book it would not be accepted. Those without an ID or with only a green ID book cited three main reasons for not getting a Smart ID card: cost, service quality, and documentation.
Across the focus groups, the cost of upgrading or replacing an ID was cited as a significant hurdle. Nominally R140, the fee quickly jumps to R200 or more to include transport, before accounting for lost wages due to time away from work or repeat visits. But cost is not the only financial barrier: people also need a way to pay. Although Home Affairs offices are supposed to accept cash, participants said that their branch did not, leaving people without bank accounts borrowing a stranger’s card for an additional fee. Mobile units were seen as an important alternative, but participants said they came too rarely, without warning and were frequently also cashless. The experience points to a broader challenge: access is not only about affordability, but about the assumptions a system makes about the resources people already have.
The difficulties extend beyond cost to how people navigate Home Affairs itself. Participants described arriving between 3am and 6am, queuing without shelter regardless of season or weather, then being sent home because the system was down or capacity had been reached. Informal brokers sell places in line, taking up space and adding another cost to an already burdensome process.
Digital solutions have not necessarily removed these barriers. In some cases, participants described them as creating new ones. Online booking was meant to ease pressure on branches, but many said they lacked the digital literacy, device access, or data to use it. Those unable to book online reported arriving at branches only to find that capacity had already been taken up by online bookings. The result is a clash between physical and digital systems meant to improve access but resulting in unintended consequences for those who could not use the digital route.
For those without an ID at all, the barriers can be even more fundamental: proving who they are. Applicants without a parent’s papers described arduous journeys across the country to track down a missing parent. Others were required to obtain affidavits or even undergo DNA testing, which participants reported could cost around R1,500 – more than ten times the Smart ID card fee. Several described having given up in the face of impossible documentation requirements, effectively locking them out of social, economic and political life, from accessing grants and formal employment to opening a bank account or exercising their right to vote.
Our research also points to where progress is being made and what can be built on. Many participants described accessing identity documents as considerably easier than it was a decade ago, while the bank partnership model was particularly well received, with participants calling for it to be expanded. The growing reach of the Smart ID Card provides a strong foundation for the next phase of South Africa’s identity system.
Our research suggests that an identity document is only as effective as the infrastructure around it: affordability, access, navigation of physical and digital systems, documentation requirements, frictionless use, no fraud, and effective communication.
As Home Affairs moves towards Digital ID, there are clear opportunities to build on the progress already made. Communicate changes, deadlines and fees early, in local languages and through radio and community channels. Keep genuinely accessible offline routes open, including cash payments, physical offices and mobile units with advance notice. Continue improving the reliability and accessibility of services, while expanding models that are working, such as the bank partnership. And develop alternative documentation pathways for people who cannot meet conventional requirements.
Ultimately, a Digital ID’s success will not only be judged by how seamlessly it works for those already included, but by how well it brings more people into the system without causing new barriers for those it is intended to serve.
