Where to for Hanis?

By Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb Cape Town correspondent

Johannesburg, 15 Feb 2007

Government's national identification system project is still ongoing, after 13 years, and there is no clarity as to exactly how much the project has cost taxpayers.

The long gestation period of the Home Affairs National Identification System (Hanis) is due to its complexity and shows the role ICT plays in government's access strategy, said Geraldine Fraser-Moloketi, minister of public service and administration.

Fraser-Moloketi chaired the governance and administration cluster of ministries media briefing in Parliament yesterday. Neither the minister of home affairs, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, nor her deputy minister Malusi Gigaba, were present.

"When government first began the Hanis project, we were not under the impression it would take one, or two, or three years to implement. What we wanted was a system that would provide smart identification cards and also access to a broad range of government services," said Fraser-Moloketi.

According to the briefing's statement, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), which is part of the governance and administration cluster, along with the Department of Public Service and Administration, plays a role in e-governance service delivery through Hanis.

'Advanced stage'

"Most of the programmes that form part of Hanis are now in an advanced stage or completed. The population of Hanis will allow for online verification of citizens, which can be extended to other government services," the statement says.

"The completion of the Hanis project will lay a basis for the future introduction of the smart identity card which seeks to replace the current green bar-coded identity documents."

Fraser-Moloketi was also unable to say how much has been spent on Hanis, except to say it was a "huge investment as the project is not only about identifying people, but also access to social benefits".

The Hanis smart card system has been in the pipeline for 13 years. It was initially conceived in 1993 and approved by the Cabinet in January 1996. It aims to record all fingerprints, photographs and other data digitally and allow several levels of verification that will be used whenever a government service is requested. This includes pension payments, unemployment payments and access to the health system.

One of the first priorities in developing Hanis was to digitise 29 million fingerprint records that had to be linked to individual identity numbers, a process the DHA said was completed in October last year. Deputy home affairs minister Gigaba reportedly said in 2005 that the first smart ID cards would be issued at the end of 2007.