South Africa pilots smart card-based national ID system
30 April, 2012
category: Government, Smart Cards
The South Africa Department of Home Affairs announced a new plan for its smart card-based national identity system that will eventually replace the current civic and immigration systems, according to Business Day.
The national ID cards will replace the country’s green ID book, which is easy to counterfeit and tamper with. Each smart card will contain an embedded chip that will store citizens’ vital information, including biometric data – all of which can be scanned and verified by government card readers.
A pilot phase to the public is scheduled in the next six months, with a full scale roll out to all South Africans within two years, said Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Department of Home Affairs Minister.
“We have decided that it is time we move from the “dompas” (dumb pass) to the smart. It will allow citizens to have modern identification cards rather than the outdated book that is easy to forge,” she said.
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