The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has expanded its digital partnership with Absa, giving South Africans two-and-a-half times more places to apply for a Smart ID Card than they did just four-and-a-half months ago.

As part of the partnership with Absa, the DHA has also launched South Africa's first bank-based Home Affairs mobile unit.

The mobile unit will take secure Smart ID services directly to remote, peri-urban and previously underserved communities, extending the reach of the department's digital reforms beyond traditional Home Affairs offices.

"For far too long, accessing Home Affairs meant taking a taxi or a bus, missing a day of work, standing in long queues and spending hours simply to apply for an identity document. Our Home Affairs @ home reform programme is changing that forever by bringing Home Affairs to where people live, work and bank,” says Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber.

The launch builds on the rapid expansion of the digital partnership since it went live on March 9. In just four-and-a-half months, the DHA has expanded services to 327 participating bank branches.

Together with the department's 214 modernised Home Affairs offices, South Africans can now access Smart ID services at 541 locations.

The DHA says this is the fastest expansion of access to Home Affairs services since the dawn of democracy, with the digital partnership already adding more Smart ID service points than the entire modernised Home Affairs network that existed when the reform programme began.

By the end of the year, the digital partnership is expected to expand to about 750 participating bank branches.

Together with the DHA’s own offices, this will give South Africans access to about 1 000 locations where they can apply for a Smart ID Card – nearly five times the number of access points that existed just two years ago.

The department notes that the digital partnership will also continue to expand before the end of the year to include adult and minor passports, first-time Smart ID Card applications and, in the next major milestone, the delivery of identity documents directly to citizens' homes.

"Through Home Affairs @ home, we are making it easier than ever before for South Africans to replace the fraud-prone green barcoded ID book with the secure Smart ID Card.

“Together, we are closing the chapter on the fraud-prone green barcoded ID book and opening a new chapter of secure, digitalised identity services that deliver dignity for all,” the Minister concludes.