SA ID and passport application coming to a bank near you
Plus: SA Treasury's cyber troubles & SARB and government lock horns over inflation target
Hello, hello!
Hope it’s been a great week for everyone!
If not, I’m still super proud of you and hang in there!
Onto the newsletter!
Capitec & FNB to offer ID & passport application at branches
Remember last month when Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber got into quite a public spat with the founder and CEO of Tyme Group, Coen Joenker, over the revised digital ID verification fees? You can read all about that in a previous edition of the newsletter here.
Well, in an interesting turn of events, Minister Scheiber just announced that Capitec and FNB have signed up to a partnership with the ministry, which will enable customers to access Smart ID and passport application services at bank branches.
Some deets on that:
According to Scheiber, the Ministry reached out to the country’s top banks in April to discuss the digital partnership model.
Previously, the model had managed the successful delivery of Smart ID and passport services at only 30 branches across 5 different banks.
The new model will see the services expanded to hundreds of branches.
The ministry has been tasked with deploying the model to at least 1,000 bank branches.
So out of the banks which the Ministry reached out to: ABSA, African Bank, TymeBank, Capitec, Discovery Bank, FNB, Investec, Nedbank, and Standard Bank, only those two have thus far responded positively.
Still a long way to go, but it will be interesting to see how TymeBank, particularly, is going to respond 🧐.
🍔Tech Away: Interestingly, TymeBank’s model, which enables customers to open bank accounts at retail stores, aligns with the ministry’s initiative.
So, will we see the Ministry and the digital bank burying the hatchet to help advance the digitalisation of ID and passport services for the greater good of South Africans? Stay tuned!
👓More resources: The Schreiber vs Jonker beef, the digital partnership model explained
SA Treasury’s cyber scare
Three weeks ago, Microsoft reported active attacks against on-premises SharePoint servers, impacting customers' data, including governments.
Microsoft has since blamed Chinese hackers for the exploitation.
It turns out that South Africa’s Treasury was also affected during the attacks.
The Treasury said it has identified the malware on its Infrastructure Reporting Model website.
To prevent any further issues, the impacted servers were isolated for monitoring.
The Treasury further added that it had requested Microsoft’s assistance in “identifying and addressing potential vulnerabilities.”
🍔Tech Away: South Africa continues to be a hotspot for cybercrime activity in Africa. According to research by INTERPOL, South Africa detected 17,849 ransomware detections in 2024, the highest on the continent.
👓More resources: More on the attack, INTERPOL’s Africa Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2025
SA’s inflation target confusion
In last week’s edition, we shared that the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) had decided to cut the repo rate by 25 basis points to 7%.
Additionally, the apex bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) also announced that it would target a lower range target inflation rate of 3%. South Africa’s inflation target is in the 3%-6% range.
Well, it turns out that declaration, which turned out to be unilateral, did not sit well with government officials.
This is because the National Treasury’s inflation target is currently at 4.5%, so the central bank coming out with a much lower target creates some confusion.
Here is a quote from President Cyril Ramaphosa on the decision by the MPC to target the lower target of inflation:
“We began a discussion on the issue of monetary policy and specifically the role and value of inflation targeting. Everyone understands that it is the Minister of Finance, together with Cabinet, who sets the inflation target in consultation with the South African Reserve Bank. The Reserve Bank then operates independently in pursuit of the inflation target that would have been agreed upon.”
Unlike President Ramaphosa’s diplomatic response, the Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana did not mince his words. Here is his official statement:
“As I emphasised during the Budget presentation, any adjustments to our inflation-targeting framework will follow the established consultation process. This means comprehensive consultation between National Treasury, the Reserve Bank, Cabinet, and relevant stakeholders – not unilateral announcements that pre-empt legitimate policy deliberation.”
For the SARB governor Lerato Kganyago, who is also chair of the MPC, I imagine having your boss blasting you on a press release was very uneasy. 😬
🍔Tech Away: So what’s next? According to S&P Global, the lock horns between SARB and the government on the inflation target might make it hard for the country to achieve a primary budget surplus and unanchoring market expectations on inflation.
Wondering what all this has to do with tech?
Well, if rates are high, borrowing becomes expensive, and investors tend to park their capital in less risky asset classes such as bonds and gold. However, if rates are lower, investors tend to have a risk appetite towards riskier asset classes such as venture capital and equities.
👓More resources: Potential effects of the SARB vs government beef, how interest rates impact VC