Treasury has set aside R150-million in this year’s adjustments budget for the team building MyMzansi, the app through which government wants South Africans to reach its services and, eventually, carry a digital ID.
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana said on Wednesday that the money will go towards “enhancing the technical capabilities of the digital services unit to lead the development of the MyMzansi app, which will allow citizens to access government services through a single digital platform”. His speech gave no further detail.
The digital service unit is part of Operation Vulindlela, the reform programme run by the presidency and national treasury. In November 2025, a treasury update on Vulindlela said the unit had built a working prototype of MyMzansi that took users through a full driver’s licence renewal, linked to the national traffic information system, Natis, TechCentral reported at the time.
The update said a MyMzansi pilot would launch in February 2026 and that an early version of a “reimagined” gov.za website was due that month. Treasury had also launched the first pilot of MzansiXchange, which allows real-time, consent-based verification of data between government departments, in Pretoria in September 2025.
In his state of the nation address in February, President Cyril Ramaphosa promised digitised driving licences, matric certificates and Master’s Office services, police statements filed online and remote checks of eligibility for social grants. “All these services will be made available on the MyMzansi platform,” he said.
Digital ID
MyMzansi is also set to carry South Africa’s digital ID. Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber demonstrated a working prototype in the app on 1 October, verifying his identity with his thumbprint and generating a QR code that shared only the details he chose.
“Digital ID cannot and will not be a photograph of your ID card on your phone,” Schreiber said. Home affairs’ performance plan targets completion of the hosting infrastructure by 31 March 2027, with citizens to be issued credentials through a mobile wallet in the 2027/2028 financial year. Using it will be voluntary, and the physical smart ID card will remain available.
Godongwana did not say when MyMzansi will be available to the public. – (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
