South Africans will soon be able to have their Smart ID cards and passports delivered directly to their homes as part of the Department of Home Affairs’ wider digital transformation programme, according to Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber. The South Africa Smart ID home delivery plan was announced by Schreiber in an interview with HOT Business, in which he said the department has already made significant progress expanding access to Smart ID services through banks. He stressed that this expansion marks only the beginning of a broader reform plan.
Schreiber rejected suggestions that the department was simply shifting queues from Home Affairs offices to bank branches. “The old model was excluding people because when I took over, there were 214 Home Affairs officers across the country, as well as 30 bank branches using an old manual model where you could obtain a Smart ID card,” he said. He added that this effectively meant 63 million people were being forced into those 214 locations, which was insufficient capacity even under ideal conditions.
Instead, the department has been decentralising access by expanding the number of participating bank branches. “In the last 4.5 months, we’ve added 327 bank branches that offer Smart ID replacement services, which means in that period we have more than doubled the footprint of access to the service,” Schreiber said. He noted that many of the new locations are outside South Africa’s largest cities, including Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, Kathu in the Northern Cape and Burgersfort in Limpopo.
Schreiber acknowledged that further work is needed to ensure services reach all South Africans, particularly those in rural areas. “We’re not there yet. This is obviously part of the full reform programme that we’re rolling out over this five-year period,” he said. The next phase of the rollout will see participating bank branches increase from 327 to 750 by the end of the year, according to Schreiber.
The department also plans to expand the range of services available at bank branches to include first-time ID applications and passport applications, alongside introducing home delivery for the first time. “So, like you get your debit card delivered to your doorstep, you’ll receive your ID and your passport in the same way, and you won’t have to go and collect it,” Schreiber said. He added that the department aims to eventually expand the network to more than 1,000 bank branches before introducing digital identity credentials accessible through smartphones.
The planned home delivery service is expected to make the application process more convenient by reducing the need for applicants to return to government offices or bank branches to collect their documents. The move could particularly benefit people living far from service centres, while supporting the government’s broader goal of modernising public services.
The reform is also expected to improve accessibility and reduce waiting times for citizens across South Africa.
Schreiber said demand for the service has exceeded expectations, with more than 422,000 Smart ID applications processed through participating bank branches over the past four-and-a-half months, a figure that excludes applications processed through traditional Home Affairs offices. He said the additional capacity is already helping ease pressure on government offices and reduce queues, adding that Smart ID production times are also improving. “We’re well ahead of our stipulated turnaround time of 13 working days, and we’re doing that at volumes we’ve never seen before,” he said.
Further information on the South Africa Smart ID home delivery plan, Home Affairs services and digital reforms is available through the South African government’s official Home Affairs page. In related international coverage, StudioX News has separately reported on political developments abroad, including the Labor National Conference 2026 in Adelaide.
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