South Africa's home affairs minister Leon Schreiber has gazetted draft regulations for a smartphone-based digital identity system called MyMzansi. The optional credential, delivered via a mobile app, would sit alongside the existing smart ID card and be valid for five years. Enrolment involves biometric capture, liveness detection, and device binding via cryptographic means. A key feature allows accredited 'trusted entities' — including banks, telecoms operators, and government agencies — to verify identities in real time and receive near-real-time updates from the national population register when citizen details change. The draft includes explicit privacy protections, restricts law enforcement access to judicially authorised requests, bars data commercialisation, and mandates audit logs. Public comment is open until 6 June 2026.
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