The Department of Home Affairs said on Monday that over one million people have applied for a Smart ID card at a bank branch since 9 March.
According to the statement, the service is now live at 669 bank branches and has served 1,002,773 people. The first branch went live on 9 March 2026. Home Affairs counts 873 places where a Smart ID can be obtained, against the 214 permanent offices it says the Government of National Unity inherited, a rise of 308%.
On 24 June 2026 the department said 203 branches were live and that more than 250,000 people had used the service. By 4 August 2026 it reported 372 branches and more than half a million applicants. Between early August and Monday the number of branches rose by 297, and the customer count roughly doubled, from more than half a million to 1,002,773.
It said every application at a bank branch is digital and biometric from start to finish, and that an average application takes five minutes. It said there is no scope for human discretion or manual paperwork, which it said had left room for corruption.
Minister Leon Schreiber said the programme is “eliminating queues and paperwork”. He also said that within months, applications for all Smart ID and passport services, with the option of home delivery, will be available at more than one thousand bank branches.
Source: Department of Home Affairs and SAnews statements, June to October 2026. Chart: Rand Desk
Home Affairs said it will shortly add passports, first-time Smart ID applications and home delivery at the branches already in the programme.
The milestone feeds into its campaign to retire the green barcoded ID book. Home Affairs said 14.7 million of those books are still in circulation. Production stops on 31 March 2027, and it will withdraw recognition of the book as valid identification by 31 March 2028, according to the minister’s earlier announcement as repeated in the statement.
In June, SAnews reported that the 203 branches then live were 109 Capitec, 74 Standard Bank and 20 FNB branches. The department’s 26 October statement does not give a split by bank. The department’s June statement put the earlier number of Smart ID outlets at 248 Home Affairs offices and 32 bank branches, while Monday’s statement counts 214 permanent offices, The statements do not explain the difference.
The minister also said the programme will be complemented by what he called a recently unveiled Digital ID system. The statement gave no launch date for it.
The next step on the department’s own timeline is the rollout of passport and first-time Smart ID services at the participating branches.
