The department of home affairs and Capitec on Monday launched South Africa’s first self-service terminals that will allow citizens to apply for ID documents at Capitec branches without the need to engage with a customer service consultant.
“This partnership with Capitec marks a historic step in transforming how South Africans access their identity documents. By bringing smart ID services into bank branches, we are moving closer to a future where people no longer have to travel long distances or stand in long queues to access this fundamental right,” said home affairs minister Leon Schreiber at a press conference held at the Capitec branch in Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg, which TechCentral attended.
“This is what effective public-private collaboration looks like. It uses innovation and national reach to ensure every South African can obtain the identity they need to participate fully in our economy and democracy, closer to where they live.”
Home affairs’ “@home” initiative is the first step of a push to digitise government services, which was first announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his 2025 state of the nation address. The digital reforms were subsequently incorporated into a digital road map announced by communications minister Solly Malatsi in May 2025 as part of the presidency’s Operational Vulindlela Phase II initiative.
Ramaphosa said the reforms at home affairs form the cornerstone of government’s digitisation as smart IDs underpin access to government services online. According to Schreiber, the use of digital tools to address service delivery issues is critical to South Africa’s future economic growth.
Simpler use cases
The self-service terminal launch forms part of a broader initiative between home affairs and South Africa’s largest banks that’s aimed at increasing the department’s reach and speeding up service delivery. Its main goal is to decrease the amount of queuing at home affairs branches by providing alternative access points for department services. Similar launches by other banks in the partnership are expected in the coming weeks.
Schreiber said home affairs is moving simpler use cases such as ID and passport applications out of its branches so it can focus on more complex cases such as the documentation of some 4.5 million South Africans who are not on the national population register.
Read: Home affairs promises full automation by next year
According to a Capitec spokesman, the choice to launch in Orange Farm is in line with Capitec’s deployment strategy, which aims first to service areas where home affairs either does not have a presence, where the nearest branch is a considerable distance away or where home affairs branches are congested.
Schreiber said banks have the infrastructure and digital sophistication to reach the South African population that government does not. An added advantage is that banks are already trusted by citizens, he added. For home affairs, the partnership with the banks allows the department breathing room to offer services while it builds its digital identity solution, which will make IDs, passports, birth certificates, marriage certificates and more available to citizens via online application.
The self-service terminals make use of cameras integrated with facial recognition software and fingerprint verification to prevent ID fraud. Schreiber said these digital tools remove the middleman in ID applications where the potential for corruption exists.
“My favourite saying is that you cannot bribe a computer. There is no ‘smallanyana’ R500 that you can give if the facial recognition does not find your face in the population register,” said Schreiber.
Capitec CEO Graham Lee said the strength Capitec brings to the partnership is its ability to deploy services at scale in a cost-effective manner. He said the terminals will not only lower costs for home affairs but also provide dignity for citizens who will no longer spend their time in endless queues. Lee said the initial launch includes 30 branches, with 100 targeted for mid-year and 300 by year-end.
‘Blueprint’
He said the terminals have been designed with simplicity and time efficiency in mind. Their user interface matches that of the Capitec app, meaning clients who can already navigate the app will be able to use the terminals easily. Capitec will also add a dedicated staff member at each branch to assist clients with using the terminals.
Read: Home affairs to move all visa processing online
“This is a technical solution that goes far beyond doing the job today. It is a blueprint for how we can deliver digital services, not just with a smart IDs, but with digital IDs going forward,” said Lee. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
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