South Africa is preparing to introduce a new electronic passport with a biometric chip within the next two years as the government moves to strengthen passport security and modernise the country’s border control system.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said the department plans to introduce the e-passport after completing upgrades to its passport application and biometric verification systems.
The new passport will contain a contactless chip capable of storing and transmitting biometric information, making it more difficult to counterfeit and allowing it to be read by automated passport control systems at airports.
Schreiber said the Department of Home Affairs, working with its Government Printing Works division, had already introduced technological upgrades to improve the biometric verification of passport photographs.
The upgrades form part of preparations to allow South Africans to apply for passports at bank branches and are intended to reduce fraud in the application process.
“Once we have fully automated the process to eliminate any scope of human manipulation or fraud, we will take the proposal to Cabinet for a new e-passport,” Schreiber said.
He said the biometric verification system would help tackle photo swapping, a form of passport fraud in which an applicant’s photograph is replaced or manipulated.
The planned e-passport will contain a secure chip holding the traveller’s biometric information. This will allow electronic passport control systems to compare information on the passport with the data stored on the chip.
Schreiber said the new passport would, for the first time, make South African passports readable by electronic gates at airports around the world.
E-passports are already used in more than 180 countries and typically contain biometric information such as a high-resolution facial image and, depending on the issuing country and applicable standards, fingerprints and other biographical information.
The technology is designed to make passports more difficult to forge because border control systems can verify whether information printed on the passport matches the data stored electronically on the chip.
For travellers, e-passports can also make border processing faster where automated passport gates are available. Such systems can use facial recognition and chip-reading technology to verify travellers without requiring the same level of manual processing.
Schreiber said the government also planned to use the introduction of the new passport to pursue greater visa-free access for South African travellers.
“We will embark on negotiations to obtain visa-free access for more countries around the world for South Africans who use the new secure passport,” he said.
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The e-passport plan forms part of wider efforts by Home Affairs and the Border Management Authority to modernise South Africa’s border controls.
The government is pursuing the introduction of automated gates and gantries at the country’s ports of entry. Construction of the new infrastructure is expected to begin once the Electronic Travel Authorisation system has been fully rolled out.
The automated system is intended to reduce reliance on manual passport stamping by using biometric checks to verify foreign travellers against information contained in their Electronic Travel Authorisation.
Schreiber said he wanted at least one automated gantry to be operational at a major South African border post by the end of the country’s seventh administration in 2028.
The planned changes would mark a major shift from South Africa’s traditional passport system towards digital identity verification, with biometric technology playing a greater role in both international travel and border security.
About the Author
Cecilia Attah is a tech analyst with a degree from Benue State University. She covers tech news and startups at TechRegard with a focus on how technology is transforming Africa and shaping the global landscape.
