South Africa's Department of Home Affairs has set a 31 March 2027 deadline to complete hosting infrastructure for a national digital identity system, with full operational rollout planned for 2027/2028. The technical stack will include PKI, a certificate authority, digital verifiable credentials, and biometric-secured digital wallets, hosted within the South African Revenue Service's environment. Facial recognition will be the primary biometric method, with fingerprints as secondary. Hybrid offline mechanisms via smart ID cards and QR codes are also planned. A supporting National Identification and Registration Bill is being prepared for cabinet submission this financial year. The department acknowledges low cybersecurity maturity and plans to establish a security operations centre.
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