Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber has said that digital transformation requires more than just technology, noting that by the time of the next national and provincial elections in 2029, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) wants to have a fully functional digital Identity Document (ID) system.

Schreiber was speaking during the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) Conference and Exhibition on Electronic Voting Technologies, in Cape Town, on Monday, where he noted that the reforms under way at Home Affairs would amount to the “most significant intervention since 1994” to bolster South African democracy.

He said there was no point in digitalising a process if it was just “as slow, inefficient and insecure” as the manual, paper-based process that preceded it.

“Digital transformation requires a deep re-examination of all existing processes to ensure that the introduction of technology becomes a catalyst that transforms the process itself. There is only one way to do this, and that is by keeping in mind the end-user,” he explained.

He said the digital transformation of government was a means to deliver better services, to enhance security, and to ensure that the user of the service walked away satisfied.

“In the case of the IEC, this means that the goal of digital transformation should be to ensure that queues get shorter, not longer, on voting day. That citizens should have higher trust, not less trust, in the integrity of election outcomes. That security should be stronger, not weaker. And that the efficiency of any electronic system should be better, not worse, than under the existing paper-based system,” he explained.

He noted that the goal for the total digital transformation of the Home Affairs ecosystem was not principally about technology, but rather about people, improving the quality, security and efficiency of products, as experienced by the people who used the services every day.

“…nowhere is this perspective more important, than in the case of elections. South Africa has a proud track record of conducting elections with integrity, which is a testament to the work of the IEC,” Schreiber stated.

He said declining voter turnout and increasing radicalism, including from those who sought to question the outcome of legitimate elections, were warning signs that South Africa must do more to enhance public trust in democracy.

“Ultimately, it must be the goal of reform – digital or otherwise – to deliver a better experience to the end-user if we are to protect the credibility and legitimacy of our elections,” he added.

He announced that the work of the Electoral Reform Consultation Panel continued, noting that once that process was concluded, he would table recommendations to Parliament that may result in further reforms aimed at bolstering the accountability of the country’s electoral system.

He said that IEC systems would need to be updated to interact with new DHA solutions, such as the digital ID and the verifiable credential.

“It is therefore important that, at a technical level, the IEC participates in the process of developing these new systems to ensure full interoperability,” he explained.

DHA REFORMS

Meanwhile, he said his department was “moving determinedly” to expand access to Smart IDs at a scale, as “never seen before”.

“We will do so by building on the successful pilot project that has rendered ID and passport services in about 30 bank branches over the past decade. It is now time to scale this to hundreds or even a thousand bank branches, so that all South Africans can obtain Smart IDs much closer to where they live,” he expressed.

Schreiber noted that this would enable the department to eventually discontinue the green bar-coded ID book, which he said was far more prone to fraud than the Smart ID.

“This will not only enable South Africans to securely store their IDs and other official documents on a smartphone, but will also provide a verifiable credential for each citizen and permanent resident.

“This will enable Home Affairs to virtually certify the identity of every person in the country, based on their unique facial or fingerprint biometrics,” he highlighted.

He pointed out that for too long, South Africa has used a National Population Register which he said failed to adequately record the biometric information of everyone in the country. Home Affairs was looking to enhance the population register.

He noted a new National Identification Registration Bill, which he said would reform the population register into a “modern, digital-first instrument”, recording the presence and biometrics of all people in the country.

He said the failure to have a so-called “single view” of all people in the country, was a major contributing factor to the risks associated with illegal immigration, including for elections, “because it enables foreigners to sojourn in the country without their biometrics being detected and stored”.

Schreiber said the reform would be coupled with the Electronic Travel Authorisation that his department aimed to begin rolling out this year, and which he said would eventually require every person who entered South Africa to provide their biometrics for capturing in a modern, new population register.