South Africa intends to issue digital IDs to 2.5 million citizens this year and aims for a fully functioning digital ID system in time for the 2029 general elections. Speaking recently, the country’s Minister of Interior, Leon Schreiber, unveiled the country’s ambitious digital transformation roadmap.
“Our apex priority is simple yet monumentally ambitious: to automate and digitalise as many processes as possible,” Schreiber stated during an electronic voting event organized by the country’s electoral authority.
Schreiber pointed out that while the South African government has been advocating for digital IDs, the upcoming 2029 elections give the initiative a new significance.
“We are moving determinedly to expand access to Smart IDs at a scale never seen before,” he stated.
The digital IDs initiative has been championed by the Home Affairs Department. In 2024, the department announced that it intended to issue 2.5 million smart ID cards in the 2024/25 fiscal year. It had issued over 2.6 million cards in each of the two years prior.
This initiative will be kicked up a notch over the next three years, with the goal of a digitalized voting system in the 2029 general elections, Schreiber stated.
Over the past five years, South Africa has taken a great leap in issuing identification documents to its citizens. In 2018, a World Bank report revealed that over 15 million South Africans lacked valid IDs, which impeded access to essential services such as education, employment and healthcare.
Under President Cyril Ramaphosa, the focus has shifted to smart IDs, which have “not only enabled South Africans to securely store their IDs and other official documents on a smartphone but also provided a verifiable credential for each citizen and permanent resident,” the minister stated.
While smart IDs are a significant improvement over their paper counterparts, the ultimate goal is digital IDs. Unlike smart IDs, which still come with a physical card, digital IDs are entirely virtual and can be accessed from any device. It’s also more secure as the holder only reveals information about a particular transaction. The integration of advanced technologies, such as blockchain, further bolsters the security and privacy of digital IDs.
Beyond South Africa, several other nations have been pushing digital IDs as the world transitions into a digital economy. From Taiwan and Sri Lanka to Nigeria and the Philippines, more countries are targeting upgrading their ID systems by the decade’s end. Many are exploring blockchain for added security and privacy, with South Korea among the leaders in this field.
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