The Department of Home Affairs is currently working on an online ID verification system which is scheduled to be fully operational by the end of 2010. This will have a positive impact on both consumers and retailers and will be crucial in the fight against ID fraud in South Africa.

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What is HANIS?
The system will be called HANIS (Home Affairs National Identification System) and will store all South African citizens’ ID numbers, fingerprints and photographs. The SA Social Security Agency, banks, insurers and retailers will have access to HANIS. This will enable retailers to verify the identities of their current clients as well as any prospective clients.

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How does HANIS work?
Organisations that have access to the HANIS system will be able to conduct on-the-spot verification checks of their client’s fingerprints and check them against the information stored in HANIS, which is provided by the Department of Home Affairs. Both the banks which have tested the system in its development stages and the Department of Home Affairs believe that this will drastically reduce the amount of ID fraud within South Africa.

How will HANIS affect consumers?
As a consumer, you can be asked to do an on-the–spot fingerprint verification. Your fingerprints will then be compared to the one stored on HANIS. This will make it difficult for people who have fraudulent IDs to use them, and hopefully the knock on effect will be a decrease in identity theft.

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A concern which has been raised, which consumers should be aware of, is that organisations with permission to use HANIS will have access to personal information that is linked to your fingerprint.   There will need to be strict security measures in place to ensure that this information is not misused in any way.

Sources: sagoodnews.co.za; buanews.gov.za; itweb.co.za. Image Source: identityfort.com