South Africa now has new passport and Smart ID service centres

South Africans will soon be able to receive their passports and Smart IDs at certain malls in South Africa, according to Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, as his administration seeks to expand services to additional outlets.

During his answer to the State of the Nation Address this week, the minister stated that systems and equipment have already been installed at Menlyn Mall in Tshwane and are ready to go in the first week of March 2023.

“In three weeks’ time, you may go to Menlyn and experience waiting to be served while you are doing your shopping,” he said.

After the Menlyn Mall Pilot, the government plans to roll out comparable services in Cresta Mall in Johannesburg, the Pavilion in eThekwini, and Tygervalley in Cape Town.

“We believe that all of those will be functional before the end of the coming financial year. That means this calendar year,” he explained. The new fiscal year for the government begins on April 1, 2023.

Motsoaledi stated that the mall rollout is done in collaboration with the malls, and that as part of the arrangement, the Home Affairs branches would operate rent-free for the next five years.

“For the next five years, we are not going to pay a single cent for rental because this project is mutualism. We bring people to come and do their shopping, and the malls give us space and other convenient facilities. So we both gain,” he said.

Motsoaledi stated that the department will greatly extend the platform for obtaining identification papers on the day the Menlyn Mall location opens.

“We will be receiving 20 brand new mobile Home Affairs units, that means Home Affairs on wheels, to travel the length and breadth of the country giving people their identification documents. We have already put an order for another 100 for the new financial year.

“Presently, we are at only 100 such vehicles. In essence, this means we are increasing our mobile offices by 120%, and we are hoping to do so every year, at least for the next five years.”

According to him, the mobile units all have built-in generators to deal with load shedding.

Bank branch expansion

Efforts to increase the number of bank branches where Home Affairs services are accessible are still in the works.

In a November presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, the government stated that it expects to open 43 additional branches after agreements with partner banks are inked in 2023.

In 2022, Home Affairs built a branch in Kathu Mall, Northern Cape, bringing the total number of operating bank branches offering Home Affairs services to 27.

The signing of the agreements has been lengthy due to banks’ reluctance to partner with the government due to the reputational risk associated with extended periods of unavailability.

“The banks have raised the State Information Technology Agency’s (SITA’s) turnaround times as a big reputation risk for them – and need assurances that their sites won’t be offline for longer periods,” the department said.

The banking Home Affairs pilot was supposed to finish in July 2022, but the banks decided to extend it until March 31, 2023. The agency stated that it expects to have inked agreements with all participating banks by that date.