South Africa selects Gemalto for its national electronic identity card program

Designed to modernize and replace South Africa’s traditional, paper-based ‘green book’ identity documentation, the new Sealys eID card will be offered by the Department for Home Affairs (DHA) to citizens aged 16 and over. The South African government embarked on this service program to improve confidence in official identity credentials and to prepare for the deployment of a comprehensive suite of efficient and convenient eGovernment services.

Leveraging experience that already includes participation to over 80 national programs worldwide, Gemalto is providing GPW with an advanced and highly durable polycarbonate eID card specifically designed to counter forgery. Furthermore, the Sealy eID supports public key infrastructure (PKI) and match-on-card authentication techniques to enable easy verification of authenticity and a future-proof platform capable of providing a broad range of secure online services such as online and in-person authentication as well as legally binding digital signatures.

“Gemalto demonstrated their proven ability to deliver high-end eID secure documents within an ambitious schedule,” said Professor Anthony Mbewu, CEO of GPW. “Plans are already in place for the next phases of the modernization program, and we are very confident in Gemalto’s deep expertise and state-of-the-art technology in supporting our future aspirations.”

“Our local presence in Johannesburg provides a key benefit in ensuring a strategic partnership with the GPW,” said Ari Bouzbib, Senior Vice President of Government Programs at Gemalto. “This new project marks another significant acceleration in the momentum behind eGovernment initiatives on the continent, where Gemalto has already deployed a number of major programs.”

About Gemalto

Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO) is the world leader in digital security with 2012 annual revenues of €2.2 billion and more than 10,000 employees operating out of 83 offices and 13 Research & Development centers, located in 43 countries.

We are at the heart of the rapidly evolving digital society. Billions of people worldwide increasingly want the freedom to communicate, travel, shop, bank, entertain and work – anytime, everywhere – in ways that are enjoyable and safe. Gemalto delivers on their expanding needs for personal mobile services, payment security, authenticated cloud access, identity and privacy protection, eHealthcare and eGovernment efficiency, convenient ticketing and dependable machine-to-machine (M2M) applications. We develop secure embedded software and secure products which we design and personalize. Our platforms and services manage these products, the confidential data they contain and the trusted end-user services made possible.

Our innovations enable our clients to offer trusted and convenient digital services to billions of individuals. Gemalto thrives with the growing number of people using its solutions to interact with the digital and wireless world.