Today we take pride in delivering to South Africa an important
achievement. What we have achieved today will be at the
foundation of many efforts which our Government will undertake
for decades to come. We are at an important turning point in
shaping the governance of the future. I am particularly proud to
be the Minister who delivers this breakthrough, because for many
years I have advocated the notion of addressing some of the
problems that South Africa is confronting because of its backlog
of underdevelopment, by leap-frogging ahead of what other nations
are doing, rather than trying to catch up by retracing their
evolutionary path. HANIS is a clear example of how South Africa
can leap-frog ahead and set the basis to redress our grave and
many shortcomings by implementing solutions which are ahead of
the times.
The HANIS project is an electronic identification system which
comprises all our citizens and residents, listing not only the
relevant identification and civic affairs information, but also
biometric features, such as fingerprints. It consists of two
pillars, the identification cards and the automated fingerprints
identification system, and allows the cross reference of
fingerprints and identification information. With this system we
will be able to eliminate any duplication of identity documents
and ensure that a great number of identity related fraud and
crimes can be prevented if not made impossible. This achievement
will provide a great contribution to our fight against crime.
However, this achievement will provide an even greater
contribution in improving on the delivery of public services by
Government as it sets the foundation for what is becoming known
as e-governance.
South Africa is one of the few countries with a complete
Population Register inclusive of the fingerprints of all our
nationals. Most countries of the world envy us for this tool of
governance, policing and security. For instance, just last week I
received a delegation of the German Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee from their Department of Interior which expressed its
admiration for what we have achieved and will be liaising with
our Department to learn more from our South African experience.
The history of this project dates back to the early eighties.
This history shows how certain efforts can be pursued with
continuity of administration but different policy slants.
Originally, the drive towards the maintenance of a universal
population register was motivated by the reasons and needs of the
apartheid system and for purposes of racial classification. Many
countries of the world do not have population registers and
believe that individual freedom includes the right to anonymity,
or are otherwise suspicious of the degree of social control which
the state may acquire through a population register and the
universal fingerprinting of its population. However, we have now
changed the emphasis of the purposes for which this important
tool of administration has been developed, shifting from social
control to improved governance.
In the mid-eighties, the Department of Home Affairs realised the
difficulty of manual fingerprinting management which could not be
maintained in the face of an increased population. A study group
to investigate automatic fingerprinting identification systems
was established but it was soon realised that at that time the
existing information technology had not developed to the stage of
being capable of handling a database of an envisaged 40 to 60
million people. However, the Department realised it was just a
matter of time before the industry would develop the technology
further, and in the early nineties a further feasibility study
was commissioned which produced a business plan which has served
as the foundation of the present HANIS. In 1995, the decision was
made to go ahead with the HANIS project and Cabinet approved it
in January 1996.
A comprehensive tender was published on 6 December 1996 for the
Home Affairs National Identification System. After a protracted
tender process, which endured acute scepticism and severe attacks
from various quarters, the tender was eventually awarded to the
deserving MARPLESS Telecommunications Technologies consortium on
12 February 1999. On 8 November 1999 the Department signed a
detailed supply contract with the contractor.
This history shows continuity of administration and a change in
the philosophy of government. Throughout the process, the
consulting firm Annexus headed by Peter Payne-Findlay remains the
golden thread of continuity. We now have a tool of administration
which will serve the cause of improved delivery of services and
increase social security rather than socially oppressive
policies. HANIS raises the technological floor of our country
providing a multi-application system which can be used by several
departments and the private sector alike.
The original HANIS project was based on a two dimensional
bar-coded card which would serve the exclusive purpose of
identification. Under my leadership, I requested that
consideration be given to the tool of smart cards to ensure that
we could have a multi-application system that would serve
purposes other than just identification and would provide a much
wider range of options and services, enabling our country to
leap-frog ahead in a variety of directions. The tender originally
won by MARPLESS did not address this new dimension of the HANIS
project and, consequently, the Department embarked on a process
aimed at considering ways and means of developing and
implementing the smart card component that will later be
integrated into the basic system which is being delivered today.
Smart cards will provide the primary function of identification
but with a much greater flexibility of options and uses. In fact,
the smart card will contain biometric information such as
fingerprints and, as such, can be used by any branch of
government and any private entity which adopts the system
required to read it electronically. This will enable machines to
read the card and, if the machine can take the biometric
information and read the fingerprint, it will be able to identify
the bearer without the need for a person to compare the picture
on the card with the bearerūs appearance. By itself, this system
will make the smart card a great contribution to the development
of private sector initiatives as, for instance, it can be used
for identification purposes in building access control or by
vending machines which intend to restrict their products, such as
cigarettes, to adults only.
There is another dimension to smart cards which is now under
consideration. This dimension will be developed but it still
remains to be decided the extent to which this will happen to
ensure that the overall system does not become too cumbersome and
complicated. This second dimension relates to the integration in
the smart card of other applications to be conducted by the
private sector and other government departments which may be
given space on the smart card to write information pertaining to
the delivery of their services. They will be using accepted
sub-systems capable of performing this function. As you know, the
most immediate use for such integrated function of the smart card
relates to the delivery of pensions by the Departments of Welfare
and Social Services. In all likelihood we will limit the
integration of additional applications on the smart card to one
or two additional services only so that on a pilot basis we can
come to terms with the various difficult aspects of this learning
curve, such as issues relating to the replacement of the card and
the integration of sub-systemsū information in our mainframe.
This gives you the full measure of the potentials of the system
which is being delivered today. The next stage will be developed
in the next few months as soon as the recommendation of the
Haysom Commission on how to structure the procurement of the
smart card has been finalised. As you know, given the magnitude
of this public procurement, I appointed a Commission headed by
Professor Fink Haysom to ensure that the procurement of smart
cards offers no opportunity for fraud, corruption or wastage and
that our Government receives the best possible value for its
money. I also looked at their recommendations to ensure that
there is consistency between the present stage of development and
the long- term future of this programme, and asked the Commission
to receive public complaints and recommendations and be fully
accessible to the public.
The HANIS project also lays the foundation for a profound reform
in our delivery of civic affairs services. Because of the
certainty and intrinsic added security which it adds to our
management of information relating to civic affairs, it will now
be possible to delegate the function of delivering civic affairs
services to municipalities. As I have already indicated on prior
occasions, this will be a long- term project which is now at its
feasibility stage. In all likelihood, this delegation will be
performed in a staggered fashion so as to begin from
municipalities which already have the existing administrative
capacity to handle it. Eventually, people will be able to get
their identity documents, birth, marriage and death certificates
directly from their municipalities which will issue them under
their name, as is done in most other countries. The Department of
Home Affairs will maintain the HANIS project and provide
monitoring, supervision, capacity building and other functions to
ensure that the system runs properly and adequately.
This dimension alone gives the full measure of the importance of
this accomplishment and shows how through technological advances,
South Africa is moving further ahead in its quest towards greater
progress, modernity and efficiency. We are moving towards
governing more efficiently and more effectively, which for me is
the only way we can serve the goals of the Batho Pele campaign
and realise the dream of an African Renaissance. Not only will we
be able to curtail dramatically all identity related crimes, but
we will also force a qualitative technologically-driven leap in
the delivery of many other services by other branches of
government. E-governance may now become a reality and I suspect
that in ten years more applications will be based on the
foundation of the HANIS programme and the use of smart cards than
we can even envisage at this juncture. Once a new technological
floor is created, all sectors of our society can build on it
beyond that which one can anticipate. This is why I have for
years been harping on the need to make massive technological
investments to drive our country's overall economic growth and I
am glad that I have been able to achieve this goal in my own
Department.
The HANIS project will make it easier, faster and more secure for
people to obtain services they are entitled to and will make it
extremely difficult if not impossible for people who are not
entitled to those services to receive them by means of identity
fraud. HANIS will also make it possible for government to
exercise a much greater degree of social control while
facilitating a broad range of functions, including the updating
and maintenance of a voters roll. I have also requested that
consideration be given to the integration in HANIS of the
movement control registry which records the entry and departure
of foreigners. In this fashion, smart cards to be issued to
foreigners may serve as their entry permit, their identity
document while they are in South Africa and their departure
record upon exiting the country.
However, as you all know, I am also a libertarian. Because of my
political background I have always taken to heart the notion that
one needs to remain vigilant to ensure that once acquired,
liberties and freedoms are not placed in jeopardy by subsequent
actions of government. HANIS is a powerful tool to govern better
and more effectively and to serve our people and deliver to them
a greater measure of public services. However, the possibility
always exists that any greater measure of power opens the door to
a greater measure of abuses. Any power without relevant checks
and balances can always be open to abuse. For this reason, I have
requested the Haysom Commission to make recommendations to me on
how checks and balances can be put in place to avoid any possible
abuse which may stem out of the utilisation of the HANIS project
and to ensure that rights such as the right to privacy are fully
protected. Their recommendation will identify whether
administrative measures to deal with these issues, including the
establishment of an ombudsman or dedicated grievance office, will
be sufficient or whether there will be need for additional
legislation.
In conclusion, I must thank all the officials of the Department
who have been involved in this project for the past twenty years
for their tireless work. Many people contributed to this project
and it would almost feel unfair to mention anyone in particular.
However, I am duty bound to recognise the work of the Deputy
Director-General, Mr Ivan Lambinon, who began this process more
than twenty years ago, and to provide very special recognition
for the tireless, dedicated and courageous leadership provided to
this process by my Chief Director for Information Technology, Mr
Patrick Monyeki. He has been a real treasure in developing this
process and a great asset not only for our Department but for the
whole of the Republic. I count on his continuing leadership to
bring the HANIS project to its full completion, especially in
respect of the development of smart cards and the identification
of the full potential of this technology.
I also wish to acknowledge the selfless efforts of other
government departments, including the Departments of
Communications, Health, Housing, Labour, National Intelligence,
Social Development, Transport, as well as Arts, Culture, Science
and Technology, for their active roles in developing this
project. We also owe our gratitude to other bodies such as the
South African Reserve Bank and many other private entities who
have provided valuable inputs. I also wish to acknowledge the
assistance of foreign governments who have provided us with
valuable inputs on their experience, problems and solutions.
It is with great pride that I now receive on behalf of my
Department and indeed the people of South Africa, the delivery of
this important project. Today we are celebrating an occasion in
which we as a country can rightly take pride. We are also marking
a direction towards a better way of governing which suggests how
the country can grow into the type of social stability and
economic prosperity which I have dreamed of during so many
decades of commitment in the public arena. It will take time
before all the existing records are converted from their present
state and captured in the new format required by HANIS. However,
the process begins today and with it we are ushering in a new
beginning which we hope will not only transform the quality and
quantity of service delivery of Home Affairs, but possibly the
whole of our government. I thank all those who made this possible
and I ask all South Africans to bear with us as we take this new
system through the unavoidable teething problems and initial
difficulties which may characterise its start.
I thank you.