This is a case study in the award-winning use of ICT in service delivery. It spans 14 years and several ministers and directors-general. The total bill, to date, is somewhere between R4 billion and R5 billion, although it could have been R10 billion had the tender for one of the very first components, contemplated a decade ago, actually been awarded by now. The service delivery might be invisible to ordinary citizens, but rest assured, the ICT is there. Somewhere.

In 1995, Home Affairs, after an extended feasibility study and business plan, decided to go ahead with a project named Hanis, or the Home Affairs National Identification System. Cabinet approved the project in 1996, and by the end of that year, the first tender was published. It would form a core pillar of the new government’s commitment to service delivery. Almost everything else, from pensions and social grants to housing, health and education, would in future depend on it.