The Department of Home Affairs has reiterated that green ID books will not be discontinued soon, saying recent reports doing rounds on social media are “fake news”.

A viral post, allegedly posted by a home affairs branch in Upington, announced that green ID books would be discontinued from April 1 and citizens would have to replace them with smart ID cards.

However, the department said in a tweet: “Take note of fake news regarding the discontinuation of the green bar coded ID document. The department has not announced any plans to discontinue the green bar coded ID."

In 2018, SowetanLIVE reported that home affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni shut down rumours that the green bar coded ID would expire in March 2019.

“We ...call upon members of the public to ignore these mischievous messages. Responding with panic affects our systems negatively‚ thus making it very difficult for us to deliver services as expected‚ professionally and in the most humane ways‚” Apleni said at the time.

“Among others‚ our offices in KwaZulu-Natal can barely cope with the numbers. As you indeed understand‚ these false messages are putting our offices under extreme pressure‚ unduly‚ as people rush there in their numbers to get smart ID cards.

“There is no expiry date for the green bar coded ID. It is valid until the time we sort out everything we need to deal with [in issuing the smart ID].”