Home Affairs opens up

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 14 Nov 2007

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is ready to engage other government entities and the private sector on gaining access to the national population register (NPR), as well as the Home Affairs National Identification System (Hanis).

DHA acting chief director of civic services Vusi Mkhize says government departments, financial intuitions and credit-granting retailers would gain access to the NPR and Hanis through the technology underlying the R2 billion "Who am I? Online (I am I said)" project recently awarded to GijimaAst.

"Home Affairs is the custodian of identity and citizenship. In the modern world it is increasingly critical that identity be databased and that it can be verified."

He adds that the war on crime - particularly the combating of identity theft and fraud - requires the department to assist other entities verify that identity documents are valid and that people are who they claim to be.

Detailed approach

Mkhize explains that the NPR is a massive database recording the details of every living South African. Hanis is an authentication system containing the fingerprints and photographs - in digital format - of everyone who legitimately carries a South African identity document (ID).

"Hanis confirms that you are who you say you are. It virtually eliminates fraud and protects our population register from being corrupted," Mkhize says.

The department recently completed the digital recording of fingerprints making up the Automated Fingerprinting System (AFIS), which forms a main leg of Hanis. AFIS also contains one or more photographs of every ID holder and may in time be expanded to hold other biometric data.

Hanis director Gert Reyneke says 50 million sets of fingerprints were successfully recorded. "We also have the fingerprints of every illegal [immigrant] we have repatriated, as well as those of registered refugees, visa applicants and contract workers."

Transversal roll-out

<B>Keeping track</B>

The national population register (NPR) contains a detailed record of everyone`s "significant life events". It allocates everyone an identity number on registration, records their full names, gender and date of birth, and links this with an electronic copy of the person`s birth certificate. The NPR also links an individual with the entries on their parents and in that way can trace a person`s genealogy for several generations. The department has paper records dating to the 1800s.
Also recorded, with appropriate documentary proof, courtesy of an electronic documentary management system - are address details, marital status (including divorce), and particulars about every application for a ID or passport or other document (including date of application and collection) and a complete travel record based on an individual`s recorded movements in and out of the country through a DHA-staffed border post. The last entry in any file is a date of death, linked to a death certificate.
"The NPR tracks people from cradle to grave," says DHA acting chief director civic services Vusi Mkhize.

Mkhize says the "Who am I?" project will first link all DHA offices at home and overseas with Hanis and the NPR. It will then be extended to other government departments and private sector entities "as required", or as contracted.

"You can link the whole of government to the system and get a result in seconds.

"The banks are very keen on this because of the population database," he says. "It is quite clearly something we cannot delay because of the value to the country. The proof of concept has been done. All we need to do is implement."

Retailers want access to Hanis and the NPR to cut down on fraud and trace those entrepreneurial criminals who shed their identity along with their debts.

"The cost to the economy of fraud and unpaid debt is huge," he says. "These shady elements, they`ll be caught. As long as you give us your fingerprints, we`ll identity you and catch you."

With the roll-out of online biometric checking, not giving fingerprints will become increasingly difficult.

"Basically we are now at a point where we can say 'let`s talk business`," Reyneke adds.

He notes the pilot project has already revolutionised document processing in the department. "Already where it`s been piloted, it has been proven. We can now issue temporary documents on the spot."

Mkhize says previously there was at least a seven-day waiting period as applications had to be couriered to and from Pretoria for verification and issue. Now, at places like Mthatha, a biometric scanner reads an applicant`s thumbprint, confirms it against Hanis and authorises an official to immediately issue the appropriate document - saving the citizen time and travel money, and the DHA a fortune in courier fees.

"The longest time to verify an applicant was four seconds, sometimes even shorter.

"The minister does not want perpetual piloting. The advantages of this are well known."

Getting smarter

Mkhize says smart IDs will give Hanis a second leg. Government has issued a request for information to aid it in costing a smart ID for the country and help it select the appropriate technology. For that reason, he is unable to provide timelines for implementation.

"There is a clear need to fast-track this card. It is a given we are moving forward on this," he says. "There is no turning back."

"Border control is going to be crucial to 2010," Reyneke says, adding that visas will in particular be a challenge. The DHA is in charge of the National Immigration Bureau that staffs borders.

Reyneke says the idea is to allow e-immigration by 2010, with visa applicants being fingerprinted abroad and upon entering SA by pressing their thumb on a reader. This will verify they are who the say they are and also admit them to the Republic.

A challenge is country like Britain. Britons are visa-exempt and Home Affairs is mulling how to verify their identities on arrival and how to keep out undesirable elements - such as that country`s infamous travelling football hooligans.