Home Affairs on expanding Smart ID access with Digital Partnership with Absa

South Africans now have two-and-a-half times more places to apply for a Smart ID Card than they did just four and a half months ago, after the Department of Home Affairs today expanded its Digital Partnership with Absa. This includes the launch of South Africa's first bank-based Home Affairs mobile unit.

Absa becomes the fourth banking partner in the Department's Digital Partnership and, with today's launch, introduces 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.

Speaking at the launch in Tembisa, the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber, said: "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."

The launch builds on the rapid expansion of the Digital Partnership since it went live on 9 March 2026. In just four and a half months, the Department has expanded 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, compared to just 214 before the partnership began.

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 approximately 750 participating bank branches. Together with the Department's own offices, this will give South Africans access to around 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 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, home delivery of identity documents directly to citizens' homes.

The Minister concluded: "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 delivers dignity for all.”

Media Enquiries:
Carli van Wyk 
Spokesperson to the Minister
Cell: 079 166 3899

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