SA trials smart ID cards

By Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb Cape Town correspondent

Cape Town, 02 Nov 2007

A pilot project for the roll-out of SA`s first smart card identity documents will begin next year, said Home Affairs minister Nosiviwe Napisa-Nqakula.

The announcement was made this morning during the Public Service and Administration Cluster of Ministries media briefing, at Parliament.

The minister said the Home Affairs National Identification System (Hanis) should not be judged on the fact that it has taken so long to develop a smart card ID system.

"Other parts of Hanis have been successfully implemented, such as the automated fingerprint system and documentation system," she said.

The Department of Home Affairs first introduced Hanis in 1993 and, over the past 14 years, the entire system has gone through periodic updates and renewals. In September, the department said it is spending R130 million to "refresh" the technology underlying Hanis.

Napisa-Nqakula said another process under way is the "sanitising" of the population register, meaning that the population register has to be cleaned up to minimise duplication errors and to ensure "undesirable elements" are excluded.

The minister said the original introduction of the green bar code ID document that was introduced in 1994 had not done this as quickly as originally hoped.

Napisa-Nqakula said the introduction of the smart card ID document has to be implemented as quickly as possible and "is the right direction to go". However, she did not elaborate on this. She also said her department was investigating the possibility of the necessary technology for the project being developed and produced in SA.

According to a media statement, the Department of Home Affairs is reviewing all its IT projects and a request for information was being developed, particularly in relation to the status of technology and costs of producing a smart ID card. It is anticipated that this document will be published in mid-November, with a final report to the political principals to be delivered by January.

The Department of Home Affairs will receive a new passport printing system in June next year, and an online fingerprint verification system has been piloted in Tshwane, Polokwane, Durban and Mthatha.

According to the department, it has decided to discontinue with Namitec technology for the online fingerprint verification system, as it wants to move to an open source system and plans to procure the technology via the open market.

The department will roll out a refugee online verification system during January. This system will also interface with the Home Affairs automated fingerprint ID system.