ID Verification against Home Affairs
Confirms a South African ID number against the Department of Home Affairs record, and returns the record held for it.
ID Verification looks up the South African ID number you submit against Home Affairs records, confirms that the number exists on the Home Affairs record, and returns the record held against it. When Home Affairs responds, the result comes back in real time, in seconds, while your customer is still in your flow, so you can vet a client quickly.
What you get, and where it stops
What you get
- Confirmation that the South African ID number exists on the Home Affairs record.
- The record Home Affairs holds against the number, returned for you to compare against what your customer told you.
Where it stops
- That the person in front of you is the person the ID number belongs to. An ID number can be read off a document, a payslip or a form. Testing that the presenter is the holder is what Facial Match and Liveness Test are for.
- That a physical ID book or smart card is genuine. This verification reads the record, not the document.
- Finances, employment or current contact details. For those, see Credit Score Indicator, Public Servant Verification or Contact Verification.
Chain it with
A flow is several verifications run as one journey. These pair naturally with ID Verification: Facial Match runs after it, and the Liveness Test runs with both.
- Facial MatchCompares a selfie against the latest photograph Home Affairs holds for the ID number and returns a match probability; you set the probability you accept.
- Bank Account VerificationConfirms the account you are about to pay or debit is registered to them.
- AML & PEP ScreeningScreens the confirmed identity against politically exposed persons (PEP), sanctions and money-laundering watchlists.
What you need to run it
- South African ID number
- The thirteen-digit number, as given to you by the customer.
What comes back
The record Home Affairs holds against the number, for you to compare against what your customer told you.
- Full name
- As recorded by Home Affairs.
- Date of birth
- As recorded against the number.
- Place of birth
- As recorded against the number.
- Sex
- As recorded against the number.
- Marital status
- As recorded against the number.
- Living status
- Alive or Deceased, as recorded against the number.
- Date of issue
- The date the ID was issued.
Every result is filed with a timestamped audit record.
| Outcome | What it means |
|---|---|
| Record returned | The ID number exists and the full record comes back. |
| No record found | No record was returned for that number. Confirm you have the number exactly as issued before drawing any conclusion. |
Where it fits in your compliance programme
Establishing and verifying the identity of a natural person is the first step of customer due diligence under section 21 of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 (FICA), and the verification record is part of what FICA sections 22 and 23 require you to keep.
Questions
Does ID Verification confirm the person is who they say they are?
No. It confirms the ID number exists on the Home Affairs record and returns the record held against it. Testing that the person presenting the number is its holder is what Facial Match and the Liveness Test are for.
Can I run ID Verification on its own?
Yes. It runs on its own. It is also where a biometric flow starts: Facial Match runs after it, and the Liveness Test runs with both.
How do I run ID Verification, and what does it cost?
It runs on its own or as one step in a flow. Run it from the portal, or through the API with a sandbox to build against (credentials on request). There is no public price list: book a demo and a specialist prepares a pricing proposal built around your volumes. You can pay as you go from a wallet or settle monthly on invoice.
About results
Veriflow will perform the Services with the reasonable skill and care of a competent provider of identity-verification services in South Africa. Veriflow transmits results sourced from third-party data sources, including registered South African credit bureaux, banks, official registers and published watchlists. Veriflow does not compile that underlying data, does not warrant its accuracy, completeness or currency, and gives no warranty that any verification result is correct.
A Result is an input to the Client's own assessment. Veriflow does not decide whether any person or entity is onboarded, declined, priced, offboarded, employed, granted credit or reported, and makes no recommendation as to any of those outcomes. Those decisions are made solely by the Client, on its own criteria and under its own legal obligations, and the Client must not use a Result as the sole basis for any adverse outcome affecting a person.
Every verification
People & identity
- ID Verification
- Facial Match
- Liveness Test
- Contact Verification
Business & compliance
Build the flow, not the verification
Tell us the journey you run and we will show you how it chains together.
Last updated .