By: Andrew Kathindi
Minister of home affairs Albert Kawana handed over new identity (ID) cards to President Hage Geingob and First Lady Monica Geingos on Thursday at the State House in Windhoek.
Founding President Sam Nujoma and former President Hifikepunye Pohamba will also be among the first to receive the “new look” ID cards at no cost.
With the new look IDs, Namibia joins 18 other African countries to have digitized their IDs, including Botswana, South Africa, Malawi, Uganda, Nigeria, Cameroon, Djibouti, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mauritius, Zambia, Sao Tome and Principe, Cape Verde, Guinea- Bissau, Lesotho, Niger, and Sierra Leon.
Geingob said that the new IDs are also a move towards a more connected African continent.
Geingob said he hopes to use the ID card to cross over into Botswana.
“We talk about African unity that we can have one continent, one identity. But we are still divided. But this is a beginning, that we have an ID that will allow free movement of people.
That’s a key element of African unity. That people and goods must move freely. If you cannot move freely, how can we say we’re forming that movement?” He said.
Kawana says the new IDs can be linked to e-governance, whose main objective is to support and simplify the administration, service delivery, and government interaction with individuals and businesses and within the government itself through information and communication technology.
Kawana says there is a need to strengthen home affairs systems, especially the population register to enable both public and private sectors to verify identity documents on the population register.
He said that this would put an end to cases such as fraud using IDs.
“The benefits will be a ripple effect for other industries: financial crimes will reduce, social grants will be issued only to those who are verified to be alive, ghost employees will be a thing of the past, banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions will operate with ease because financial fraud will be minimized. The biometric system will replace the outdated fingerprint system, which requires paper and ink, another unnecessary cost.
“Our current IDs will continue to be in use because the migration to the new IDs will be done in gradual progression. Those applying for
duplicates and new IDs will be issued with the new look IDs from today.
New ID applications will be issued without charge, meaning they will be
free. However, duplicates will be charged for in order to encourage our citizens to take care of the cards,” Kawana said.
“We came from the older IDs issued according to tribal setups to SA IDs to SWA IDs to the current Namibian IDs, and now the new look IDs. That is how things are done, step by step.”
Along with the ID card for Namibian citizens, which will remain blue, the government also launched new ID cards for permanent residents of Namibia, which remain pink and a new ID card specifically for refugees.
According to Kawana, the new look ID will be more secure as the QRC and MRZ will contain elements that will be read by a machine and are not easy to forget. The Ministry will print the additional features of the IDs in Windhoek. The printing of the new ID cards does not involve the use of ink. Instead, laser engraving is used.
“Likewise, with these new features, we can engage neighbouring countries to consider using these ID cards as travel documents. The ID cards are compatible with the specifications of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The world is moving towards electronic innovation. I am happy to say that Africa is also moving with the world.”
Kawana also appealed to Namibians who have not picked up their uncollected ID cards to do so.
The launch of the new IDs comes 20 years after the launch of the currently issued blue ID cards. They followed the 1996 Identification Act, which states that “every person who, on or after the commencement of the Act becomes 16 years of age and who does not have an identity document, must within three months from the date on which they attained the age of 16 years apply for an identity document.
The Act was launched to replace the former cards, which still carried the South West Africa details.
The Act came into operation on 15 May 2001 after it was gazetted by former Home Affairs minister, Jerry Ekandjo.
