Home Affairs Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize said people will have to apply for their passports at one of the country’s 179 live capture sites where photos and fingerprints are digitally recorded.
Smart card IDs and passports have been introduced to phase out fraudulent passport use but up until now, manual and digital processes had been running alongside each other.
This system where fingerprints were taken on paper and photos taken elsewhere created a “gap” where fraud could be committed.
Mkhize said IDs passports and birth certificates have “high value” and her department is under constant attack by criminal syndicates.