Zuma, Tutu to get smart ID cards

"In terms of delivery to the broader public, we will in due course announce plans to roll out to the general public, focusing on young South Africans as first-time applicants for the identity documents, as well as senior citizens."

The first batch of smart ID cards will be issued to a list of eminent South Africans this month, Home Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor said .

She said on Mandela Day, July 18, the smart cards would be issued to individuals including President Jacob Zuma, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, and former president Thabo Mbeki.

"We are prioritising the Mandela generation, those veterans in their 80s and 90s, whom we wish to honour while they are with us in person.

"In terms of delivery to the broader public, we will in due course announce plans to roll out to the general public, focusing on young South Africans as first-time applicants for the identity documents, as well as senior citizens."

Other recipients of the first batch of cards would be Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, former president FW de Klerk, and struggle veterans Sophie de Bruyn, Andrew Mlangeni, Ahmed Kathrada and Dennis Goldberg.

It would take between six and eight years for all South Africans to be issued with smart ID cards.

"We appeal to everyone to be patient and allow us to phase in this change efficiently," said Pandor.

"We will expand the number of offices able to process applications for the smart ID card. We hope all South Africans will work with us to ensure we succeed in this significant national project."

To avoid a rush for the new ID cards, Pandor said applicants would be invited to home affairs offices in stages, according to their ages.

On Women's Day, her department would commission four machines to produce the ID cards. The machines would be named after Helen Joseph, Lilian Ngoyi, Sophie de Bruyn, and Rahima Moosa.

Home affairs was still calculating the cost of the smart cards.

Pandor said the smart ID card was "technologically impressive".

"It has... security features, such as holograms, laser engraving and personal details which will provide visual verification of the card.

"There are logical security features which include fingerprint biometrics and biographic data which is embedded on the 80 kilobyte card chip," she said.

Regarding South African expatriates, Pandor said they should approach home affairs offices when they returned home.

"We really want people to present themselves, as this is an important part of ensuring that we have integrity on the national population database," she said.

"This is an opportunity not only to present new technology, but to clear up our national population register and eliminate those persons fraudulently holding the ID documents.

"Every person who gets the smart ID card will have to present for live capture of their biometric details."

She said citizens who lost their green, barcoded ID documents would be issued with the smart cards. She said the issuing of the smart cards would take fewer days than the 47 days for the current ID books.

Institutions, mainly banks and retailers, would have to buy the scanning machines and fingerprint-reading machines needed to verify the cards.

"We are going to have coexistence of the IDs, but we will arrive at a point where the ID book will be eliminated from our system."

Home affairs deputy director general Sello Mmakau said the department was busy defining standard specifications for the equipment to be used by businesses to verify the smart cards.

"These scanners are available in the market. We just want to make sure that there are standard definitions which we will give to key stakeholders, including banks."