Home Affair’s Smart IDs win tech award

The Department of Home Affairs’ Smart ID card project won the “coveted” ICT Service Delivery and Transformation Award in the National Government category at the ICT Public Service Awards on Sunday

The award‚ the department said in a statement on Monday‚ “seeks to recognise and reward the most outstanding service delivery‚ or a product or service‚ and/or transformation at a national government level”.

Director-general Mkuseli Apleni said the award “is testament to the department’s unwavering commitment to delivering a quality service to our clients”.

“The Department of Home Affairs will always strive to improve its systems through the creation of a high-security‚ uninterruptible environment within which the people‚ systems and infrastructure can be protected‚” said Apleni.

“To this end‚ we have recently announced collaboration with major financial institutions with a view to expanding our footprint while ensuring that our clients are able to access our services in a convenient manner”.

The department‚ however‚ was last week moved to correct “misleading reports” alleging Home Affairs “Minister Malusi Gigaba had intentionally misled the nation by implying that no fraud or corruption had been detected during the roll-out of the Smart ID card”.

Last Monday‚ the Democratic Alliance’s Haniff Hoosen said Gigaba “is lying‚ or he is in absolute denial that the new Smart ID system is corruptible and needs to be improved”.

The department’s Gauteng provincial manager‚ Albert Matsaung‚ had‚ Hoosen said‚ contradicted Gigaba’s contention that “no corruption cases have been detected during the roll-out of the Smart ID card process” when he said there “were more than 60 cases of fraud and corruption” connected to the new card system.

Home Affairs said last Wednesday that Matsaung “clarified that the fraudulent instances he had alluded to had occurred during applications for green barcoded identity documents and not during applications for Smart ID cards”.