Hon Chair, for the moment, we have got no plans to extend to any other entities than the banks. I am saying for the moment and there is a simple reason why we are doing so. When we switched over from the green bar coded Identity document to
the smart card you need a sophisticated system. That is why that document cannot be forged, the smart card. But you cannot issue it with any system. You need some form sophistication. At the moment, Home Affairs has got 412 offices in the country but only 193 of our own Home Affairs offices can issue that smart card Identity document and a passport.
If you happen to go to any of the other offices which are not part of the 193, you unfortunately are still going to get the old green bar coded Identity document and you will have to change it later unfortunately. Yes, because we need that level of sophistication. You need good infrastructure, electronic systems that are intact.
Now, the banks already have successes and that why we are using them. We are dreaming that in future when the post offices have stabilised we can also use it but not now. Even though the banks are sophisticated as they are only 13 branches are able to do that, only one in the Western Cape, 12 in Gauteng, zero in my home province of Limpopo, zero in North West, Zero in KwaZulu-Natal, zero in Eastern Cape, zero in Northern Cape, zero in Mpumalanga and zero in Free State. Now, we are expanding and we are going to add 29 more bank branches. Our offices, out of the 193 in this financial year, we are
going to add 26 more. So, we will keep on expanding and then next year April we add 70 more bank branches.
While these systems are stabilised and we an entity like the post office or SA Social Security Agency, Sassa offices and they are stabilised and everything is fine, we will extend that system to them but for now we cannot because this system depends on ultra security. Thank you very much.