Biometrics use by the South African government

Biometrics are used by the South African government to combat fraud and corruption and to increase the efficiency of service delivery to the public.

The system was grounded in the principle of fail-over and in case of power loss or other unforeseen circumstances would switch over to a fully functioning secondary site.

The benefits in sight, however, will be a paperless environment with shorter queues, a reduction in bureaucratic delays and the accuracy of the system will dramatically reduce the possibility of identity theft and fraud.

Portable readers (powered by Sagem's MorphoTouch and RapID technology) are used at roadblocks around the country to identify wanted criminals and bring them to justice.

Fingerprints are also being used as the sole method for doing criminal record background checks for commercial purposes – as the use of a name, surname or identification number has too much potential for abuse, and this system failure has led to much fraud.

This service has a significantly faster turnaround time (48 hours as opposed to weeks) than the traditional system for checking criminal records.

It has a budget allocation of approximately R100 billion, and provides social grants to 15,8 million beneficiaries to reduce their levels of deprivation and enable them to participate in the economy.

In a country where social assistance touches such a high proportion of citizens and incorporates dealing with enormous monetary amounts, such fraud and misappropriation of funds is a slap in the face of those truly in need, and cannot be tolerated.

As part of its strategy to address this problem SASSA has announced that all social assistance beneficiaries will be re-registered through a biometric enrollment system.

Following enrollment, a biometric system will analyse physical or behavioural traits, such as fingerprints, iris, face, voice and hand geometry, to verify the identity of a beneficiary.

The main reasons for implementing a biometrics system by the South African government seem to be the eradication of crime and corruption, and enhancing service delivery to the citizens of the country.