Be patient with smart ID process
HOME affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni has appealed to South Africans to be patient and wait for announcements and invitations before rushing out to apply for the new smart ID cards.
The Department of Home Affairs has started processing the new smart ID cards. “People must know that this thing must be managed properly so that we don’t cause issues of stampedes,” said Apleni.
At the same time, Home Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor handed over smart ID cards to a number of senior citizens at the Home Affairs Byron Place in Pretoria and Harrison Street in Johannesburg.
While this week the roll-out of the smart ID card will also see cabinet ministers, deputy ministers, MPs, media editors as well as those from other sectors being invited to apply through the three offices in Gauteng and Western Cape, the minister would make further announcements on when members of the public can apply.
Apleni said the process to move all 38 million South Africans with green ID books to the new Smart ID card would likely take six or seven years.
The department would use two methods to call members of the public to apply for the new IDs — by either inviting each applicant by name, using the details from the National Population Register, or by calling for applications by the month of each applicant’s date of birth.
Those that lose their ID and are sometimes away from the respective application period going on their date of birth, must apply for an ordinary green ID book, said Apleni.
The department aimed to process 100 000 Smart ID card by March next year
