South African National IDs: Past, Present and Future
If you live outside South Africa, you might recognize the term “green book” as being the title of an award-winning movie, in which a virtuoso African-American pianist tours the American Deep South in the early 60s, driven by his Italian-American driver.
Not so in South Africa — the green book has, until recently, been the traditional national identity document. Yet both movie and national ID card have a relationship to race, as the South African green book, so-called because it assumes the form of a green booklet, emerged after apartheid to confer rights to all citizens and validate their identity for the services to which they are entitled, such as registering to vote or opening a bank account.
Today, the South African green book remains in circulation but is being phased out as the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) undertakes a major drive, started in 2013, to instate the new Smart ID card.
South African National ID Card
The new smart ID card has several security features and is difficult to forge, unlike the green book. It has two means of authentication, a fingerprint and password known only to the user, and a variety of other safety mechanisms including:
- A microchip that stores the citizen’s data, including their biometric information, such as a photograph of their face and their fingerprints
- A “match on card” feature that allows these fingerprints to be verified with the microchip itself, meaning that no central database connection is required, and citizens’ privacy is protected
- Visual features on the card to prevent forgery
- Polycarbonate ID card body that is durable and designed to stand the test of time
Format of the Card
The South African ID number may look like a random string of numbers at first glance, but it follows a certain pattern that reflects the information of the cardholder.
The South African ID number has 13 digits in this format: YYMMDDSSSSCAZ
- YYMMDD: This is the date of birth. 15 October 1990 would be 901015
- SSSS: This defines the gender. Females have numbers from 0 to 4,999, males from 5,000 to 9,999, with the DHA looking into a gender-neutral option
- C: This denotes citizen status and is either a 0 (citizen) or 1 (permanent resident)
- A: This denoted race, but is no longer in use
- Z: This checks that the number sequence is correct using the Luhn algorithm, which is a simple checksum formula used to validate a variety of identification numbers
Where does Smile Identity come in?
Our partners use Smile Identity to validate the identity of their customers when they onboard them and run Know Your Customer checks. The most popular way of doing this is by asking the customer for their national ID number, which we check against details in the relevant database. However, we also offer the ability to accept a photo of the national ID, and passports if preferred, through our Document Verification product. In this situation, all a customer does is take a photo of their ID card, take a selfie, and we run the check — make sure that the document is authentic, the owner is the rightful one, and return the information back to our partners who complete their onboarding, and begin transacting.
