Johannesburg - Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba is on a quest to make his department sexy, following the launch of the eChannel Project on Thursday.
The project, which is a partnership between the department and financial institutions Absa, FNB, Nedbank and Standard Bank, was launched by President Jacob Zuma in Midrand on Thursday and will allow people to apply for their smart ID cards and passports online and collect them at the big four banks.
Gigaba said the partnership was the first of its kind in the world and could combat identify fraud. Their digitisation programme would take their modernisation of the department forward, he said, adding they were “re-dreaming, re-imagining, repackaging the Department of Home Affairs”.
“We are actually making Home Affairs sexy; we are taking away the long queues.
“We're simplifying the process of applying for your documents through making it nice, enjoyable, fun,” Gigaba said.
Zuma said he was “happy when the minister said it's a first partnership in the world”.
“That is South Africa, always a special country. As a country, we are making huge strides in this area of innovation.
“South Africa is known all over the world for what it does. It has done things that many people come to South Africa if they've got problems to seek some advice and solutions,” he said.
“This makes many of us proud that we are in a country that is moving forward. And we are doing all we can to ensure that we are heading to a prosperous South Africa for what we do.”
The president said the partnership would also ensure that more voters had IDs and “are therefore empowered to register and exercise their democratic right to vote”.
The president said the new Home Affairs service of applying at banks for civic documents would initially cater for people between the ages of 30 and 35.
“Going forward, we intend to build the capacity to extend the system to other age categories.
“We are working also on making our services more accessible to persons with disabilities and in particular those with visual difficulties,” he said.
He called on the department to continue relentlessly “improving its management of identity and immigration”.
The Star