South Africans still using the green bar-coded ID book will not be able to use it in two years, according to Home Affairs deputy director-general for operations Thulani Mavuso. Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, he said the department has started collecting the documents and treats the green book as a vulnerable document too easily manipulated by criminals.

The minister will announce precise timelines later, and Mavuso urged people not to wait for the deadline.

The numbers show how far the migration has come and where it is stuck. Home Affairs has issued about 34 million smart ID cards since introduction, of which roughly 25 million were reissues to people swapping out green books and 9.7 million were new applications from young people becoming eligible. But more than 341,000 smart ID cards are sitting uncollected across the country, some for close to 10 years, and Mavuso says many belong to teenagers who applied at 16 and never fetched the card.

Bank branches have become a meaningful channel, issuing about 700,000 cards between March and the second week of September. The point that matters commercially is Mavuso's own: once the green book falls away, the smart ID card becomes the only legal document a person can present for transactions, particularly with financial institutions. Home Affairs can issue a temporary identification certificate for anyone who has lost or damaged their ID, and that certificate is also valid for voting.

BusinessTech reported Mavuso's warning and the collection figures, noting the final timelines still require ministerial announcement. Newzroom Afrika carried the full interview, including his appeal to parents to make sure children who turned 16 actually collect their cards. Home Affairs has said it is prioritising elderly people, people with disabilities and children in the collection process.

Two years sounds comfortable until you consider what runs on identity verification. Every FICA check, employment record, payroll onboarding and credit application in the country rests on a document that is about to stop being valid, and the smart ID card will be the only accepted proof. Any business holding green ID copies on file for staff or clients is holding documents with an expiry date attached.

The bank branch channel is the practical route, with 700,000 cards issued in six months, and the branch network has expanded considerably. Worth noting the timing against Home Affairs' other project, because two separate digital ID apps are being built at once and the digital credential is only due from 2027/28.

So the green book goes before the digital replacement arrives, which makes the physical card the only option in between. The date is not fixed yet, but the direction is.

You might also like our piece on Smart ID branches and where you can apply, the SA digital ID prototype timeline, and the RelyComply breach that exposed identity data held by compliance providers.

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