The newly appointed Minister of Home Affairs says he looks forward to the advancement in technology that will improve the department’s service delivery. Minister Aaron Mostoaledi was one of the delegates in attendance at the ID4Africa meeting that began at Emperor’s Palace in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg.
Government authorities from across the continent are expected to take part in panel discussions and exhibitions that will display the new and improved ways of capturing identity information.
At least 1500 delegates from across 95 countries, both African and international, filled the Emperor’s Palace convention centre, working towards the adoption of improved modern identity systems at the 5th annual ID4Africa conference.
The Department of International Relations and Co-operations minister, Naledi Pandor, applauded the progress made by the Department of Home Affairs, but says they still have more work in store for them.
“We must however, ensure that we improve our interaction between us as the state, the citizen and the visitor. We must be more customer-centred. We must ensure we have a secure environment.”
Dr @NalediPandor: “The modernisation of @HomeAffairsSA when fully & successfully implemented, will reengineer & automate most of the department’s key processes & yield a significantly enhanced identification system, & a credible national population register.” #ID4Africa pic.twitter.com/mD1whpjRIE
— DIRCO South Africa (@DIRCO_ZA) June 18, 2019
Private stakeholders had an exhibition on display, showcasing the latest identity technologies. Motsoaledi says he looks forward to introducing new advancements to the country.
“It is estimated that one billion people on this planet are not registered anywhere. That means that they are just existing, but they are not known who they are, where they are etc, and the bad news is that half of that one billion is in the sub-Saharan Africa. So the technology you see here are modern technologies; for instance, you have seen the technology where it is no longer depending on fingerprints, but also depending on iris and facial recognition techniques.”
Motsoaledi says products and services ranged from advanced biometric systems, facial and iris recognition and eVisa online and mobile services.
“We also have moved into the mobile space so biometrics being able to capture on mobile devices, which is important in Africa where there is not always communication infrastructure. So we are able to capture fingerprints and photographs through these devices…Our terminals are made to capture all your biometrics needed for government efforts including documents; iris, fingerprints and it can print the ID card rurally in the field.”
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