Smart ID nightmare almost over for Naturalised Citizens and South Africans born abroad

11 October 2023

The DA welcomes the confirmation that Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, has finally acceded to the DA’s repeated calls for South Africans born abroad and Naturalised Citizens to be able to receive Smart IDs.

Home Affairs Director General (DG) Tommy Makhode confirmed to the DA In a parliamentary portfolio meeting yesterday that he had been instructed to implement this with ‘immediate effect’. The DG indicated that system modifications were underway to facilitate this and bring a resolution to this matter which the DA has raised, to quote the DG, “over and over and over again”.

To date the affected South African Citizens have only been able to apply for the old Green Identity books, having to travel in some cases hundreds of kilometres to apply at the nearest small office that still processes Green ID book applications. Smart IDs are far less susceptible to fraud and are also processed substantially quicker than Green Identity books.

The DA is at the forefront of fighting for the right of South Africans to citizenship and to enjoy their citizenship without restriction. From our call for Home Affairs to facilitate free DNA tests for indigent South African fathers to prove the parentage of undocumented South African children, to relentlessly pressing Minister Motsoaledi to keep his post-election promise to have birth registration at all health facilities that deal with births, to the restoration of citizenship to South Africans who lost their citizenship without their knowledge due to an apartheid-era provision in the Citizenship Act.

The DA will submit parliamentary questions on the full details of the steps being taken and dates by when this will be implemented and closely monitor developments to ensure no further delay.

Issued by Adrian Roos, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, 11 October 2023