The department of home affairs is working on upgrades to its online systems that will make it possible for citizens to access its services – like applying for an ID document and having it delivered to their home – without ever visiting a physical branch.
According to home affairs minister Leon Schreiber, who spoke in parliament on Tuesday, the system will be called “Home Affairs @home” and will allow citizens to access services, even if they live abroad.
“Our goal is nothing less than revolutionising the way citizens interact with their government by moving from manual to digital. But this is about more than technology,” Schreiber said in his budget vote speech.
“It is also about fundamentally shifting the paradigm of how government interacts with citizens. Our ultimate aim is to deliver Home Affairs @home, which will enable every South African, no matter where they are on the planet, to obtain services from their government online.”
Schreiber said that since 1994, the delivery of government services has been undermined by centralisation, paperwork, manual processes and long queues. This model led to inefficiency, a lack of transparency and corruption. Nowhere were these problems more evident than in the home affairs ecosystem, he said.
“Ironically, it is for precisely this reason that I regard the work we are doing at home affairs as fundamentally important for the future of our country,” said Schreiber. The minister described the digitisation process at the department as progressive, with improvements to the layout and workflow in physical branches laying the foundation for additional digital tools to enhance the efficiency of service delivery overall.
Digital reforms
Reforms implemented over the last year have led to the provision of 3.6 million smart ID cards, half a million more than the previous annual record. A decade-long visa backlog of 306 000 applications was also cleared and the incorporation of drones and body cameras by the Border Management Authority improved the rate of detection of illegal border crossings by 125%, according to Schreiber.
Digital reforms are also being made to the visa regime, with an electronic visa system for tourists expected to be deployed by September. Digital visas for the film industry are also in the works via a new system called the screen talent and global entertainment system (Stages).
Read: Home affairs to roll out restaurant-style self-service kiosks
According to Schreiber, slow visa processing speeds via manual systems led to a major Netflix production from Mexico choosing an alternative shooting location, costing the South African economy an estimated R400-million in lost revenue.
“Thanks to Stages, companies will now be able to apply via a dedicated online portal, receive visa decisions within hours and will no longer be required to visit missions in-person abroad,” said Schreiber.
Another of the digital initiatives at home affairs, reported by TechCentral last week, is a plan to deploy digital self-service kiosks in home affairs branches to allow citizens to access basic services like the printing of birth, death and marriage certificates without having to queue at manned counters.
A fully digitised home affairs is the desired end state of the reforms being implemented by the department. In the interim, home affairs will expand its reach by adding “at least 100” bank branches where applications for smart IDs and passports can be made. The technology enabling this expansion is foundational to making Home Affairs @home a reality.
“This same technology reform will also enable South Africans to order smart IDs and passports through their banking app, just like they already do when buying electricity or data. And we will introduce the option of home delivery for smart IDs and passports, using advanced facial recognition technology to secure the process,” said Schreiber. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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