Capitec Customers Can Now Get Their Smart ID at 67 Bank Branches Across Mzansi

• Capitec has expanded its Smart ID service to 67 branches across all nine provinces, pushing South Africa past 100 bank branches for the first time
• What took the original Home Affairs bank pilot ten years to build, Capitec nearly matched in just a few weeks through its own digital system
• Customers can walk into a participating branch with no booking, complete the application in under five minutes, and collect their Smart ID when it is ready

Capitec customers across all nine provinces can now apply for their Smart ID at one of 67 bank branches. This came after the bank expanded its self-service Smart ID facilities.

The bank started the month of March with just seven equipped branches and added more locations in phases over the following weeks. By 31 March 2026, the final day of the Department of Home Affairs' 2025/26 financial year, Capitec's 67 branches combined with 35 branches from other banks pushed the country past the 100 bank branch mark for Smart ID services. That was a target Home Affairs had set for itself in its Strategic Plan published in April 2025, and it was met right on deadline.

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What took ten years now took twelve months

The original Smart ID and passport bank branch pilot launched back in 2015. Over the ten years that followed, that programme reached just 35 branches nationwide. It also required Home Affairs officials to be physically stationed inside those branches, which made scaling the service slow and expensive.

The new model works differently. Capitec built its own digital integration using Amazon Web Services. It connects its in-branch self-service terminals directly to Home Affairs systems through a secure API gateway. No Home Affairs staff are needed on site. That makes Capitec the first bank in the country to operate the service entirely independently. In a matter of weeks, Capitec nearly tripled what the old model took a decade to achieve.

Here is how the service actually works

Capitec customers can walk into any of the 67 participating branches with no booking and no paperwork. A dedicated self-service terminal handles the entire application in under five minutes. The terminal captures biometric data, connects to Home Affairs in real time, and processes the application on the spot. Once the Smart ID is ready, the customer gets a notification and collects it from the same branch.

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The service currently covers Smart ID replacements only. That includes replacing a lost, stolen or damaged Smart ID, or swapping out a green ID book for a Smart ID card. First-time applications are not yet available in-branch but are expected to be added as the service matures through 2026. The application costs R150, made up of the standard Home Affairs fee of R140 and a R10 service fee charged by Capitec.

See the full list of branches in the BusinessTech report here.

More articles about Smart IDs

• Capitec opened 30 new Smart ID branches in its first week alone, far outpacing its own targets and covering all nine provinces across South Africa.
• A Cape Town man showed Mzansi how to skip the Home Affairs queue entirely using just a Capitec branch and R150.
• Major South African banks are beginning to offer Smart ID services inside selected branches, promising a faster and more convenient way.

Source: Briefly News