Dear Editor
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the decisive action taken by Minister of Home Affairs Dr Leon Schreiber to transform the department’s identity verification service into a world-class infrastructure.
50% failure rate and 40,000 hours of downtime demand action.
For years, the Department of Home Affairs has provided access to its national identity database at just 15 cents per transaction—substantially below the actual cost of maintaining the service. This artificially low fee made it impossible to invest in upgrades, contributing directly to a 50% failure rate and an indirect impact on Home Affairs system downtime which totalled an astonishing 41,691 working hours over the five years of the previous administration.
To put this into perspective, this is four times more working hours than were lost due to load shedding. Such unreliability did not just inconvenience banks—it held back job seekers, delayed social support, and frustrated the daily lives of countless South Africans. It affected everything from access to education to the opening of a simple bank account.
The 50% failure rate of the previous system will now be reduced to under 1%, a step change improvement in reliability and responsiveness.
The DA supports the new R10 verification fee as a practical step toward stabilising and upgrading the Home Affairs system. The goal is not profit—but performance. Without this change, South Africa cannot hope to build a functioning digital state that serves its people fairly and consistently.
We note that while some have expressed concern about the fee increase, others have recognised the value of a reliable verification system and welcomed the change. Their differing reactions reflect the broader debate in the sector, but one thing is clear: the status quo was not sustainable.
Minister Schreiber’s decision strikes the right balance between ensuring cost recovery and building a modern and reliable identity system. The DA urges that all revenue from this revised fee be ringfenced to support digital infrastructure and reduce the down-time that have plagued the system for too long.
This reform is a vital step towards restoring public confidence in Home Affairs. It’s time that South Africans had access to an ID verification system that is not only secure and efficient but available when needed.
Regards
Adrian Roos MP
DA Spokesperson on Home Affairs