The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has issued a record 4 002 964 smart ID cards in the 2025 calendar year — the highest rate of delivery in the history of the department.
This milestone represents a 17% increase on the 3 427 468 Smart IDs issued during 2024, which was itself a new record at the time.
The 2025 performance is about 1.3 million more than the number of Smart IDs issued during the 2023 and 2022 calendar years.
This historic breakthrough represents the latest milestone under the department’s vision to deliver Home Affairs @ home through the pursuit of digital transformation.
The focus on technology upgrades and improved efficiencies at both the Department of Home Affairs and Government Printing Works (GPW), which physically produces the smart ID, has led to this improvement.
One of the key upgrades has been the department’s investment in repairing the Online Verification Service (OVS), which was previously underfunded and abused by some external users.
Correcting this has led to higher uptime and better performance of the population register at Home Affairs offices, directly contributing to giving more South Africans access to smart IDs than ever before.
“The milestone of delivering over four million smart IDs in a calendar year for the very first time demonstrates how our commitment to digital transformation is expanding inclusion and access at a scale never seen before.
“Smart IDs are vastly more secure than the fraud-prone green barcoded ID book. Thanks to the ongoing digital transformation of Home Affairs, over four million more people gained the ability to securely open a bank account, access employment, and obtain social grants in 2025,” said Home Affairs Minister, Dr Leon Schreiber.
“The accelerated rollout of smart IDs is a cornerstone of the department’s Medium-Term Development Plan targets. The green bar-coded ID book, which the smart ID is intended to replace, has become a soft target for fraudsters and is estimated to be 500% more vulnerable to fraud than the smart ID.”
To further enhance access to smart IDs, the department is currently in the final phase of preparatory work for the rollout of a new digital partnership with South Africa’s banking sector, which will enable even more citizens to access smart IDs at hundreds more bank branches around the country, close to where they live. – SAnews.gov.za
