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Today’s announcement by Home Affairs Minister, the DA’s Dr. Leon Schreiber, that Capitec and Standard Bank branches have begun rolling out Home Affairs services, is an absolute gamechanger for South African citizens.

From today numerous branches of both Capitec and Standard Bank will begin allowing their clients to complete SmartID applications, without needing to go anywhere near a Home Affairs office; which the DA sees as a leap forward for access to Home Affairs services.

We celebrate that by simply going into their bank branch, South Africans at these newly equipped branches can now complete an application to convert from an old Green ID Book, to a SmartID application in just five to 10 minutes.

This is a shining example of what a DA Minister can achieve in National Government, and shows that the DA agenda of improving lives and making government services easier to access is working.

By the end of this week, the service will be available in 17 bank branches across the Country, and will roll out to dozens more in the coming days, weeks and months. In a year from now the DA looks forward to this service being available at bank branches across all corners of South Africa, as Minister Schreiber rolls it out continuously.

As other banks, over and above Capitec and Standard Bank, join this rollout, it will become a truly national roll out.

The DA warmly welcomes that the conversion to SmartIDs can now be applied-for at bank branches, and we congratulate the Ministry and Department of Home Affairs for the digital transformation underway.

The DA sees “Home Affairs @ home” as a groundbreaking and progressive service.

Issued by Karabo Khakhau MP and Jan de Villiers MP -