South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs has tabled a budget of 13.8 billion Rand (about US$828 million) in parliament for the 2026/2027 financial year to support the expansion of Smart IDs, the digital visa system, and the imminent launch of a national digital ID.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber made the announcement in a recent budget vote speech in which he chronicled the successes which his department has achieved in the last two years under the ‘Home Affairs @ Home’ initiative. This is a drive that was launched with the aim of transforming how South Africans access identity services.
South Africa is currently implementing a digital transformation program guided by the MyMzansi DPI Roadmap which aims to dramatically streamline public service delivery in the country.
Palpable digital transformation gains
Schreiber noted that the successes of their reform initiatives so far have been strong and palpable.
He cited the new model partnership with banks which is facilitating access to Smart IDs with a record four million of them issued in 2025, the success recorded with the pilot phase of the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) system which involved four countries, and the release of the digital ID draft regulatory framework for public comment.
According to the minister, Home Affairs intends to build on this progress by intensifying efforts deployed for these core projects that underpin the department’s ongoing digital transformation agenda. In the last financial year, Home Affairs had requested $615 million to drive its digital transformation vision.
“Given the astonishing success of this project, we have raised our ambitions accordingly. I can announce today that, by the end of 2026, we aim to roll this [Smart ID application]service out to at least 750 bank branches, extending them into every corner of South Africa,” the minister told parliament.
“Over the next few weeks, we will also roll out first time Smart ID and Passport applications through this new system. And we will introduce doorstep delivery of IDs and Passports for the first time in South African history.”
With regard to the digital visa program, Schreiber said its early success after it was open to nationals from China, India, Mexico and Indonesia, is pushing government to expand the service in the near future to many more countries and all visa categories.
“With final technical work currently underway, we will shortly expand the ETA to tourists from many more countries. This will unlock entire new growth markets for our tourism sector in ways that were unimaginable under the previous manual and paper-based system,” he assured.
As concerns the digital ID, he called on South Africans to submit their comments before the June 6 deadline so that “we can implement an appropriate and fit-for-purpose regulatory framework for this new system that will enable South Africans to securely access Home Affairs services in the palm of their own hand.”
Biometric voter registration from May 27
Apart from the three core digital transformation projects, Schreiber disclosed that part of the budget will be dedicated to the organization of upcoming local elections for which a national biometric voter registration exercise will commence soon.
“The national voter registration campaign will officially launch on 27 May 2026 under the message: ‘Get Up, Show Up, Vote.’ This is preceded by a targeted voter communication and registration campaign that is currently being rolled-out across 212 municipalities until the end of this month,” the minister stated.
Meanwhile, Schreiber also tabled Home Affairs budget proposals for the 2027/2028 financial year which stands at R12.8 billion (US$770 million), and that for the 2028/2029 fiscal year which amounts to R13.3 billion (US$801 million).
Article Topics
biometrics | digital government | digital ID | government services | MyMzansi | South Africa
