Date: 08/11/2011

Source: The Department of Home Affairs

Title: SA: Dlamini-Zuma: Address by the Minister of Home Affairs, at the launch of the Home Affairs-Sabric partnership on online verification, Pretoria

The CEO of SABRIC Kalyani Pillay
Members of the SABRIC Board
Representatives of our partners in the banking industry
Senior management of the Department
Ladies and gentlemen of the media,
Fellow South Africans

Neil Armstrong, the American astronaut noted upon setting the first historic step on the moon in 1969, that it was a small step for man but a giant step for mankind. We are convinced that the step we today are undertaking jointly with our partners in the banking sector, indeed constitutes a giant step for all the people of our country.

Together with our partners in the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) we proudly present today to our people and the world - the first ever and historic Online Fingerprint Verification System hitherto unknown in our country.

We do so motivated by none other than a burning patriotic desire to deliver efficient, effective and quality services to all our people. We are of the firm view that this launch will add impetus to existing national efforts to help create a better life for all our people, today, tomorrow and forever!

This launch must communicate a positive message that working together with the private sector can we address challenges facing the majority of our people including the need to address poverty alleviation, under-development and ensure sustainable livelihoods for all our people.

In this regard, we are humbled and express our sincere appreciation to our partners in the South African Banking Risk Centre for the support and confidence they have demonstrated by entering into a partnership with Department of Home Affairs.

We equally, as government, through this partnership express our confidence in the South African banking system which has withered the storms of various stages of our economic development including, the recent global recession.

This partnership underlines the confidence of the banking industry in the Department of Home Affairs as a reliable partner in defence of our identity and the restoration of the citizenship of all South Africans. Today we can jointly and proudly ask our citizenry, How can we help you!

It is our conviction that the launch today of the Online Fingerprint Verification System has laid a firm foundation for an advance to a more strategic partnership between our Department of Home Affairs and the banking sector, today. Online Fingerprint Verification, Ke yona!

The launch today, comes against the background of national efforts to ensure the Department of Home Affairs takes its rightful place within the Justice and Crime Prevention Cluster (JCPS) of government while discharging its mandate as a security department

In this context, we are of the view that the launch of the Online Fingerprint Verification System, by the Department of Home Affairs and SABRIC will add to the already existing momentum to protect and defend our common identity - the heritage of all South Africans.

Indeed, we must always remain cognisant that our common identity was earned at great cost, and is due to the unflinching sacrifices of those who have come before us, with others having paid the supreme price for us to enjoy. We shall forever remain greatly indebted to these heroes and heroines of our people. In their memory, we must spare neither strength nor effort to protect and defend this hard-won gain.

Equally, the launch of the Online Fingerprint Verification System by the Home Affairs Department and SABRIC will lay a basis for us jointly to deal a massive and decisive blow against acts of fraud and corruption that have cost our financial and banking institutions millions if not billions of rand. Online Fingerprint Verification System is indeed a simple but sophisticated war against fraud and corruption

We acknowledge that acts of corruption and fraud will not disappear overnight but will most certainly lay a basis for a major offensive in our national effort to push back the frontiers of fraud and corruption. We can only succeed to the extent to which we receive co-operation from the broader citizenry.

In launching the Online Fingerprint Verification System, Home Affairs and SABRIC indeed contribute to a positive climate in which our citizenry are and feel safe in the knowledge that their savings, investments, deposits and hard-won earnings are indeed secure in the hands of the various banking institutions - FNB, ABSA, Nedbank, Standard Bank, Mercantile Bank, African Bank and Capitec Bank.

We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the esteemed members of the Board of SABRIC, CEO and MD of our various banks for their co-operation and support in making the launch of the Online Fingerprint Verification System a success.

I would also like to add a special word of appreciation to those who have been committed to the implementation of this project.

I thank you.