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Joe Mcgluwa, the ID Spokesperson for Home Affairs, has slammed the Department over the fact that ‘the Smart Card is nowhere to be found in Home Affairs' Strategic Plan 2010/11 to 2012/13.

‘When there is almost unanimous agreement that the current ID is a fraudster's dream and is being abused daily by corrupt officials in the Department, I just cannot understand why the project has been scrapped,' Mr Mcgluwa says.

‘While her Deputy, Malusi Gigaba, has been saying publicly that whoever came up with the idea of the current, green ID book was "stupid", the Minister has just gone and canned its replacement, without offering any sound alternative.' 

"I think whoever designed it should win a Nobel stupidity prize. It is the most stupid document you can imagine," Gigaba told a Johannesburg workshop on human trafficking a fortnight ago.

‘The Smart Card has made an appearance in the Strategic Plans of two ministers before Dlamini-Zuma and once again it has amounted to nothing,' says Mcgluwa. 

A week ago Dlamini-Zuma said there had been a lack of commitment from banking institutions regarding the implementation of the Smart Card and that her Department had had "a bad experience" with Sita. As a result her Department had canned the Card and returned the money to Treasury. 

‘The Minister is saying that she will announce an alternative to the Smart Card, but how can we be sure the alternative will not end up in the bin just like the Smart Card,' says Mcgluwa. 

‘The ID does not believe that because Sita is incompetent and messed up the initial stages, the entire project should be cancelled. Instead, the Minister must come clean over exactly what Sita has been up to and those responsible for giving her "a bad experience" must face the music.'

Mcgluwa says he is also in possession of a letter from the Auditor-General's office confirming that the report requested by the Portfolio Committee from Sita, which shed light on the controversy surrounding the allocation of the tender, was in fact sent to the ministry on 10 February 2009.

‘In spite of this the previous Minister and her successor failed to present it to the committee,' Mcgluwa says.