Minister Gigaba must come clean on faults within smart card ID system

Less than two years since the Department of Home Affairs rolled out the new smart ID Cards, syndicates have infiltrated the supposed "most secure" system of identification and have managed to acquire fraudulent IDs for non-South African citizens which makes this system susceptible to fraud and corruption as was the last system.

This was revealed by the Gauteng Provincial Manager of Home Affairs, Mr Albert Matsuang in a recent briefing to the home affairs portfolio in parliament, who confirmed that there were more than sixty cases of fraud and corruption in the new smart ID card system. He explains in detail (follow this link to 1.44mins) how syndicates have managed to infiltrate the system. 

This contradicts an official parliamentary reply from the Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, to a question I posed to him. In that reply he alleged that “no corruption cases have been detected during the roll out of the Smart ID card process”. 

Either the Minister is lying, or he is in absolute denial that the new smart ID system is corruptible and needs to be improved.

I will again provide him with an opportunity to provide clarity on this matter by posing further parliamentary questions to him. This will allow him to put on record – once and for all – whether there have been cases of corruption, and what steps he is taking to improve the system. 

ID corruption steals from ordinary South Africans, and will erode trust in the new system. The Minister must therefore take the infiltration of the system seriously and take necessary measures to fix these problems before it becomes out of control. 

Issued by Haniff Hoosen, DA Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, 19 October 2015