Hon Chairperson, the department is pursuing persistently and consistently methods and instruments to help combat Identity document, ID, fraud and theft. As I said, Identity document fraud and theft have far reaching and negative consequences to the individual but also to society as a whole. It has negative economic consequences to the country. It is not just a theft or whatever. The economic consequences are huge. For instance, the banks have reported to us that every year they lose in the vicinity of R50 million per annum because of ID theft.
A lot of steps are being taken to combat this. One of the first steps is to move over to the smart card which we have started in 2013. The simple reason up to this far is that the smart card has been in existence for six years now. There has never been any
evidence of it being forged. Maybe a tsotsi is still going to be born or emerge who has a capacity to forge it but for now, there is nothing. The reason that the banks are really begging all their members to be on the smart cards is because they will no longer be defrauded. That is why they are prepared to help us so that everybody has got a smart card.
The second thing to combat fraud is that we have discovered that some of the fraud happens because of our own officials who are bribed and corrupt. We cannot run away from that fact. The Department of Home Affairs then introduced some systems like a user ID and a password and we found that our officials are able to bridge this. So, recently we have introduced a new system called Biometrics Access Control Management, Bacam. With this system, a Home Affairs official who must issue a document to you, used to use a userword and a password to get into the computer. Now they have to use their fingerprints. None of them will come and tell me that their fingerprints have been stolen. Without a fingerprint, they cannot get into our system.
If they used fingerprints and get in, we will definitely know who access the system. So, since we introduced Bacam I am sure many of you who have visited Home Affairs offices you have seen in front of
every desk that there is a small glass there with a green light. That is a Bacam system. An official has to put a finger there and then it opens. So, we are hoping that in a few years time, fraud will be something of the past with that system.
The third method to combat fraud and forgery involves putting a new system to capture details of citizens. At the present moment, we are using a system called Home Affairs National Identity System, Hanis. When you go to Home Affairs and you want an ID, we are going to take your photo and your fingerprints through Hanis, put it on the national population register, store it there and then give you your document.
Now we are changing Hanis to Automatic Biometrics Identification System, Abis as technology advances. What is the difference between the two systems? The difference is that Hanis will record your photo and your fingerprints whereas Abis will record your fingerprints; photo; palm print; facial recognition technique; and iris recognition technique, meaning it can look into your eye and know that it is you. In future we will add the DNA. The DNA module is still going to be planned but it will be there soon. Very soon we will be using Abis and Hanis until Abis is stabilised and then we take away Hanis.
We are now abolishing the National Population Register on the fourth method to combat fraud. Anyone of you who took an ID, Birth Certificate, Marriage Certificate or Death Certificate - yes, I do not know how many of you here died. I know you might have done the other certificates. [Laughter.] If you have done anyone of those four you appear on the National Population Register. Now we are going to replace the National Population Register with the new system called National Identification System, NIS. The difference between the two systems is that the National Population Register has got a database of South Africans whereas NIS is going to have a database of everybody who is living within with the borders. But of course those who want to be known because you are going to ask me how do you say everybody when we know that there are illegal undocumented immigrants?
If an undocumented immigrant wants to come on forth and be on our NIS we will allow that but if they are hiding it will be still be all of us searching them through inspectors. The difference between National Population Register and NIS is that the NIS will try to identify and store the records of everybody who is inside the country. Then you will ask me how are we going to do it? If we establish a Border Management Authority as we are planning, anybody
entering through our borders will have their biometrics taken and will be able to store them.
The final and the last system to eliminate fraud is to take a Birth Certificate when you leave a hospital because then you cannot lie about your identity. In the coming 20 or 30 years later you will know you will not be able to lie about your identity. Those are the systems we are putting to combat fraud and corruption. Thank you, Chairperson.