The upgraded national population register (NPR) is already delivering positive results, justifying the increase in identity verification fees, home affairs minister Leon Schreiber told MPs on Thursday.
While giving his budget vote speech in the National Assembly, the minister detailed achievements made since his appointment last year.
The increase in the identity verification fee by 6,500% last week to fund the infrastructure upgrade caused controversy, especially with online banking company TymeBank.
The cost of real-time verifications during peak hours was increased from 15c to R10, while the off-peak, low-cost alternative for batch transactions now costs R1.
In his address in the National Council of Provinces, Schreiber highlighted the need for the upgrade, noting that in the five years of the previous administration, 41,000 working hours were lost due to the NPR being down — four times more than the hours lost due to load-shedding.
He said the justice cluster of departments had been boarded on to the upgraded service, including the police and the department of justice & constitutional development, as well as entities such as the SA Social Security Administration (Sassa). The service is free for government entities.
“This cluster alone is now successfully processing more than 180,000 transactions a day through the new service, which consistently delivers results in less than one second, with an error rate well below one percent.
“Additionally, three major private sector users have already transitioned to the new service. One private sector user has already processed over 1-million records through the new off-peak batch option that would previously have gone into the real-time queue and caused the system to go offline, directly contributing to a more stable NPR for all users,” Schreiber said.
The minister said the department of home affairs was working on building SA’s first digital ID system. A draft digital identity policy would be submitted to cabinet later this year.
“First, we are creating a policy foundation that will allow the department to shift its paper-based documents and services onto digital platforms. The policy will also enable the framework to verify such documents and create the space for the safe use of the digital identity. The department will be able to issue and verify e-passports, e-birth certificates and digital IDs.
“At a technology level, the department is working with the SA Reserve Bank to develop a robust digital identity system based on facial recognition.”
Schreiber cited among the department’s achievements over the year the clearing of a backlog of more than 306,000 visa applications dating back more than a decade.
It had also produced and delivered just under 3.6-million Smart IDs, surpassing the previous annual record by nearly half a million. More than 1.4-million naturalised citizens and permanent residents had obtained Smart IDs for the first time.
The use of advanced drone and body camera technology had resulted in an increase of up to 215% in the detection and prevention of attempted illegal border crossings. More than 46,000 people were deported, the highest figure in more than five years.
Thirty-seven corrupt officials had been dismissed.
Planned for rollout for tourist visas at end-September is the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system, which will digitalise visa processes from beginning to end.
When fully functional, no-one will be able to enter SA unless their biometrics are recorded and match those on their visa applications.
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