Thousands of people have applied for smart ID cards and passports online, following the inception of the eHomeAffairs portal in conjunction with major banks, Home Affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni said on Wednesday.

“Since the inception of eHomeAffairs last week, 4,088 citizens have registered through the portal, of which 140 online applications have been successfully concluded across the four banks,” Apleni said in Pretoria.

“It was slow on day 1 at 229 applications, 1,687 on day 2, a slight drop on day 3 (189) and day 4 (162) and back to higher numbers with 1,001 on day 5, and 730 by yesterday (Tuesday). The lowest number of applications were experienced during the weekend, with Sunday (10 April) receiving the lowest online submissions,” he said.

He said there were appointments already booked up to the end of April.

Apleni said the new online system now enabled citizens to apply for documents from the comfort of their homes or offices. People apply and pay online and then go to their selected bank to have their photo taken and their fingerprints verified.

“The beauty of the system is that citizens, who choose this facility, do not have to queue in offices. Home Affairs offices would then be freed to attend speedily to other clients, thus confirming our promise that the days of ‘the horror affairs’ are over,” said Apleni.

“We trust that the new eHomeAffairs initiative will assist greatly to reduce long queues in front offices while accelerating the replacement of green-barcoded ID books with smart ID cards. In this regard, we appeal to clients to bring along their ID books and required supporting documents. At the end of the day, we want to see better service for citizens and improved professionalism on our part.”

The banks already involved in the initiative are ABSA, First National Bank, Nedbank and Standard Bank. The system has so far been rolled out to 11 bank branches.

“As we have announced, the platform is being used mostly by citizens in the targeted group – 30-35 years old. Our monitoring shows there is a sizeable interest shown even by other age groups. Our appeal is for more 30-35 citizens to seize the moment and apply,” said Apleni.

“Others will follow in due course, including the holders of permanent residence permits as well as those that have been naturalised,” he added.

Apleni said, for now, the pilot project was for Gauteng and the Canal Walk in the Western Cape.

“We wish to appeal to citizens outside these areas not to use the facility until further notice,” he said.