South Africa is working on unique digital identity, instant visa

South Africa plans to create unique identities for its citizens and issue instant visas as it digitises its economy.

The South African Revenue Service, the central bank and the Department of Home Affairs are working toward a unique digital identity, the tax authority’s boss Edward Kieswetter said at an event last week.

“The absence of a digital identity means that in South Africa I have an ID number, I have a tax number, I have” one for registering a company and another for being a hospital patient, Kieswetter said. “I appear in the system in many different identities which allows for arbitrage — so I can be employed and get a social grant because the system doesn’t pick me up.”

The revenue authority is also working with home affairs to issue instant visas using existing technology that allows it to issue tax assessments in under five seconds, according to Kieswetter. “The fact is the technology is there, so they are working with us to develop a proof of concept for instant visas,” he said

The Department of Home Affairs is “amending its five-year strategic plan and annual performance plan to embed digital transformation and inter-agency collaboration” into its work, its spokesperson Duwayne Esau said. “It is still early days as this planning process remains a work in progress,” he said in a text message Tuesday.

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber in September said his department has a five-year strategic vision to go digital.