Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News
      South Africa is losing its film industry - one delay at a time

      South Africa is losing its film industry – one delay at a time

      5 February 2026
      Crypto markets reel as bitcoin slides

      Crypto markets reel as bitcoin slides

      5 February 2026
      Smartphone market hit by deepening memory crisis

      Smartphone market hit by deepening memory crisis

      5 February 2026
      MTN Group in talks to buy out IHS Towers

      MTN Group in talks to buy out IHS Towers

      5 February 2026
      Google goes from laggard to leader in AI

      Google goes from laggard to leader in AI

      5 February 2026
    • World
      AI won't replace software, says Nvidia CEO amid market rout - Jensen Huang

      AI won’t replace software, says Nvidia CEO amid market rout

      4 February 2026
      Apple acquires audio AI start-up Q.ai

      Apple acquires audio AI start-up Q.ai

      30 January 2026
      SpaceX IPO may be largest in history

      SpaceX IPO may be largest in history

      28 January 2026
      Nvidia throws AI at the weather

      Nvidia throws AI at weather forecasting

      27 January 2026
      Debate erupts over value of in-flight Wi-Fi

      Debate erupts over value of in-flight Wi-Fi

      26 January 2026
    • In-depth
      How liberalisation is rewiring South Africa's power sector

      How liberalisation is rewiring South Africa’s power sector

      21 January 2026
      The top-performing South African tech shares of 2025

      The top-performing South African tech shares of 2025

      12 January 2026
      Digital authoritarianism grows as African states normalise internet blackouts

      Digital authoritarianism grows as African states normalise internet blackouts

      19 December 2025
      TechCentral's South African Newsmakers of 2025

      TechCentral’s South African Newsmakers of 2025

      18 December 2025
      Black Friday goes digital in South Africa as online spending surges to record high

      Black Friday goes digital in South Africa as online spending surges to record high

      4 December 2025
    • TCS
      TCS+ | How Cloud On Demand is helping SA businesses succeed in the cloud - Xhenia Rhode, Dion Kalicharan

      TCS+ | Cloud On Demand and Consnet: inside a real-world AWS partner success story

      30 January 2026
      Watts & Wheels S1E3: 'BYD's Corolla Cross challenger'

      Watts & Wheels S1E3: ‘BYD’s Corolla Cross challenger’

      30 January 2026
      Watts & Wheels S1E3: 'BYD's Corolla Cross challenger'

      Watts & Wheels S1E2: ‘China attacks, BMW digs in, Toyota’s sublime supercar’

      23 January 2026

      TCS+ | Why cybersecurity is becoming a competitive advantage for SA businesses

      20 January 2026
      Watts & Wheels S1E3: 'BYD's Corolla Cross challenger'

      Watts & Wheels: S1E1 – ‘William, Prince of Wheels’

      8 January 2026
    • Opinion
      South Africa's skills advantage is being overlooked at home - Richard Firth

      South Africa’s skills advantage is being overlooked at home

      29 January 2026
      Why Elon Musk's Starlink is a 'hard no' for me - Songezo Zibi

      Why Elon Musk’s Starlink is a ‘hard no’ for me

      26 January 2026
      South Africa's new fibre broadband battle - Duncan McLeod

      South Africa’s new fibre broadband battle

      20 January 2026
      AI moves from pilots to production in South African companies - Nazia Pillay SAP

      AI moves from pilots to production in South African companies

      20 January 2026
      South Africa's new fibre broadband battle - Duncan McLeod

      ANC’s attack on Solly Malatsi shows how BEE dogma trumps economic reality

      14 December 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CambriLearn
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • IQbusiness
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Netstar
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Vodacom Business
      • Wipro
      • Workday
      • XLink
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Financial services
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Satellite communications
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » Sections » Public sector » ‘System offline’ scourge to end, says Schreiber – but industry must pay

    ‘System offline’ scourge to end, says Schreiber – but industry must pay

    Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber has defended a huge increase in the fees it charges companies for customer verification.
    By Duncan McLeod23 June 2025
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp
    'System offline' scourge to end, says Schreiber - but industry must pay - Leon Schreiber
    Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber

    Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber has defended a huge increase in the fees it charges companies, including banks and telecommunications operators, to run checks against a national database for client verification.

    Following an initial pilot “that yielded promising results and further enhancements, home affairs will on 1 July 2025 begin the roll-out of an upgraded National Population Register (NPR) verification service to all companies and government users to verify identities with first-class speed and reliability”, home affairs said in a statement on Monday. However, corporate South Africa is going to have to cough up handsomely to utilise the platform from next month — and the country’s telecoms operators have already signalled alarm at the move.

    “⁠For more than a decade, banks and financial service providers have only paid 15c for real-time verifications against the NPR. This is below market-related rates charged by the private sector for comparable services and far below the cost to the state of providing the online verification service, which deprived home affairs of the resources required to maintain the NPR,” it said.

    For more than a decade, banks and financial service providers have only paid 15c for real-time verifications

    “Extreme under-pricing has led to profiteering and abuses by some users that overwhelm the NPR and cause failure rates of more than 50%, contributing to ‘system offline’ failures at home affairs offices and threatening national security.”

    The planned price increases have already been sharply criticised by the Association of Comms & Technology (ACT), the industry body representing South Africa’s six largest telecoms operators. According to ACT CEO Nomvuyiso Batyi, home affairs sought to increase the fees without adequate consultation with the industry.

    “We have reached out to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre and the Banking Association of South Africa to say this is not fair. Home affairs must perform their due diligence and not increase prices so drastically overnight,” Batyi said in a recent interview with TechCentral.

    New price structure

    Batyi warned that that if the price increase is introduced, it could lead to businesses that are reliant on access to the database reducing their statutory duties to check customers’ identities due to prohibitive costs. For the telecoms sector, such behaviour could lead to further circumvention of the Rica Act, which governs Sim card registration designed to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to fight crime.

    According to Batyi, the alleged lack of transparency by home affairs regarding the model that informed its proposed new pricing structure has opened the door to speculation. If businesses don’t know what they are paying for, they could assume home affairs is using the banking, insurance and telecoms sectors to fund the planned overhaul its digital systems in line with promises made by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his state of the nation address to parliament in February.

    Read: Sita claps back at home affairs over ‘divorce’

    But Schreiber has said the price increases are needed to help the department build a “world-class identity verification service”.

    “⁠After initiating substantial upgrades to the service, home affairs has gazetted a new price structure that sets a cost-reflective price for real-time verifications during peak hours at R10, while introducing an off-peak, low-cost alternative for batch transactions costing just R1,” the minister said in its statement.

    ACT CEO Nomvuyiso Batyi
    ACT CEO Nomvuyiso Batyi

    “This vastly enhanced service, which will boost service delivery from government departments and enhance financial inclusion in the private sector, will be accompanied by appropriate tariff increases implemented after widespread public consultation and after concurrence was obtained from the minister of finance.

    “Since its roll-out more than a decade ago at inappropriately low cost to users, the demands on the online verification service have far outstripped the capacity at which it was originally designed,” he said.

    “Due to the upgrade stasis and the increased demands placed on the online verification service by institutions – and exorbitant over-use by some institutions owing to unsustainably low prices – users now experience a staggering failure rate in excess of 50% on verification checks against the NPR.

    Every responsible state on Earth must take the necessary steps to ensure a functional population register

    “Even in the case of successful verifications, response times often take hours, thereby defeating the purpose of real-time verification. Both these factors are directly undermining services that require such verifications, including through the online verification service and at home affairs offices.

    Home affairs accused “certain private sector users” of relying on the “artificially low price to inflate their corporate profits at the expense of the quality of service received by the public”.

    “The artificially low pricing structure has led to such severe underinvestment in the NPR that it now poses a direct threat to financial inclusion, to the ability of the government to combat identity and financial crime, and to national security,” home affairs said. “Home affairs is bringing an end to this vicious cycle.”

    Failure rate

    The department intends rolling out a new online verification service on 1 July – the same day as the huge price increases take effect – and it will be a “sleek, modern system that delivers what it was designed to do”.

    “It now performs in real time and the failure rate has been reduced to below 1%,” said home affairs.

    For the first time, the new system will also introduce an option for users to do “non-live batch verifications” during off-peak hours at a significantly lower fee than real-time verifications.

    These will cost R1/verification, compared to R10 for a request to the live system. “This will offer both a cost-effective alternative to real-time verifications and incentivise users to stop overloading the system’s live queue, reducing the problem of ‘system offline’ at frontline home affairs offices,” the department said.

    “This is a matter of national security, plain and simple,” said Schreiber in the statement. “Every responsible state on Earth must take the necessary steps to ensure a functional population register. This upgrade also advances financial inclusion and makes a significant contribution to South Africa’s attempts to get off the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list.

    “A healthy NPR is also a prerequisite for a functional digital ID, as the NPR must become the central database against which identities are verified as home affairs becomes a digital-first department.”  — © 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Get breaking news from TechCentral on WhatsApp. Sign up here.

    Don’t miss:

    Home affairs faces backlash over ID database fee surge



    Leon Schreiber
    WhatsApp YouTube Follow on Google News Add as preferred source on Google
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleWhy the spectrum gold rush may soon be over
    Next Article TechCentral: South Africa’s premier platform for ICT leaders

    Related Posts

    A digital reset for migration in South Africa - home affairs minister Leon Schreiber

    A digital reset for migration in South Africa

    28 January 2026
    Telecoms industry drags home affairs minister to court - Nomvuyiso Batyi

    Telecoms industry drags home affairs minister to court

    27 January 2026
    Digital IDs will launch before year-end, government says - Maropene Ramokgopa

    Digital IDs will launch before year-end, government says

    23 January 2026
    Company News
    Vox Kiwi Wireless: fibre-like broadband for South African homes

    Vox Kiwi Wireless: fibre-like broadband for South African homes

    5 February 2026
    NEC XON achieves an African first with full Fortinet accreditation - Ian Kruger

    NEC XON achieves an African first with full Fortinet accreditation

    5 February 2026
    Clickatell: Agentic AI turns automation into consequence

    Clickatell: Agentic AI turns automation into consequence

    5 February 2026
    Opinion
    South Africa's skills advantage is being overlooked at home - Richard Firth

    South Africa’s skills advantage is being overlooked at home

    29 January 2026
    Why Elon Musk's Starlink is a 'hard no' for me - Songezo Zibi

    Why Elon Musk’s Starlink is a ‘hard no’ for me

    26 January 2026
    South Africa's new fibre broadband battle - Duncan McLeod

    South Africa’s new fibre broadband battle

    20 January 2026

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Latest Posts
    Vox Kiwi Wireless: fibre-like broadband for South African homes

    Vox Kiwi Wireless: fibre-like broadband for South African homes

    5 February 2026
    South Africa is losing its film industry - one delay at a time

    South Africa is losing its film industry – one delay at a time

    5 February 2026
    Crypto markets reel as bitcoin slides

    Crypto markets reel as bitcoin slides

    5 February 2026
    NEC XON achieves an African first with full Fortinet accreditation - Ian Kruger

    NEC XON achieves an African first with full Fortinet accreditation

    5 February 2026
    © 2009 - 2026 NewsCentral Media
    • Cookie policy (ZA)
    • TechCentral – privacy and Popia

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

    Manage consent

    TechCentral uses cookies to enhance its offerings. Consenting to these technologies allows us to serve you better. Not consenting or withdrawing consent may adversely affect certain features and functions of the website.

    Functional Always active
    The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
    Preferences
    The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
    Statistics
    The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
    Marketing
    The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
    • Manage options
    • Manage services
    • Manage {vendor_count} vendors
    • Read more about these purposes
    View preferences
    • {title}
    • {title}
    • {title}