The tech-savvy smart card ID, designed to curb identity fraud, will be launched on Nelson Mandela's 95th birthday, July 18.
The first recipients of the credit-card-like ID will include President Jacob Zuma, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela's former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
Home Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor said yesterday that it would take between six and eight years to replace all green bar-coded IDs with the smart cards.
"With this system we are consolidating the process that our democratic dispensation launched in 1994 to restore the identity, citizenship and dignity of all South Africans.
"The smart ID card puts paid to the indignity, humiliation and marginalisation to which the majority of South Africans were subjected over centuries of colonial and apartheid rule, when various authorities sought to subjugate and strip indigenous people of their identity," said Pandor.
She said the department was preparing its 27 regional offices to handle applications for the new cards. It would have about 140 offices next year.
Pandor said the department had not decided how much people would have to pay for a new card, but the department has said in the past that it would be about the same as for a green ID book.
Because of the technology they incorporate, the cards will be available in five to 10 days, as opposed to the current waiting period of 48 days.
Features to prevent fraud and duplication of IDs include holograms, laser engraving and details that will provide visual verification of the card and easily identify cards that have been tampered with.
Fingerprint biometrics and other biographic data will be embedded in an 80Kb chip on the card.
This would render the card "almost impenetrable" and extremely difficult to forge or tamper with, said Pandor.
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