Auditor-General findings on South Africa's Home Affairs IT and the ABIS contract

What the audit found

The Department of Home Affairs began replacing its Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS) with ABIS in 2015. SITA ran the tender for the department and awarded the contract to EOH for R409 million ². AGSA could not get key contract documents during its audit of SITA, so the R409 million was reported as possible irregular expenditure. AGSA found non-compliance with the Public Finance Management Act and supply chain rules and said EOH may have been unfairly favoured, according to the parliamentary record of a 25 August 2020 committee meeting ².

Briefing Parliament on the 2019/20 audit, AGSA said the department's audit opinion was stagnating, mainly due to material findings on compliance with legislation. The department reported R284 million in irregular expenditure, of which R277 million was ABIS payments ¹.

For 2021/22, AGSA told the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on 11 October 2022 that IT weaknesses had been raised since 2018/19 and that it saw a "weak ICT security posture". It said the E-Visa system and the Biometric Movement Control System were deployed without user acceptance sign-off or testing, ABIS Phase One was not complete, penalties were invoked against EOH (R62 million) and IDEMIA (R3 million), and the ABIS budget rose from R410 million to R475 million ⁵.

For 2023/24, AGSA told a National Council of Provinces committee on 16 October 2024 that the department had regressed to a qualified opinion. It found the ABIS target for 2022/23 and ABIS Phase 2 (iris, infant footprint and palm print) were not achieved, and it linked National Population Register downtime to weak monitoring of network service levels. Irregular expenditure included R35 million tied to ABIS procurement under earlier multi-year contracts and R206 million for IT goods not bought through SITA ⁷. eNCA reported the same day that AGSA called the qualified result a setback ⁸.

The official response

At the 25 August 2020 committee meeting, Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi said he learned of the matter in June 2019 and was "answering for the deeds of other people". Deputy Minister Njabulo Nzuza said the irregular expenditure sat in the department's accounts as the department paid for the contract. SITA executive caretaker Luvuyo Keyise said EOH would not be allowed to walk away from the contract ².

In a statement dated 2 August 2022, the department said it had paid R280 million to EOH, made up of R113 million for hardware, R110 million for software and R56 million for services, and that EOH had withdrawn from all government contracts. It said IDEMIA would be paid R150 million to finish the project, of which R12 million had been paid. It rejected media reports that R450 million had been wasted, stating "there is no R450 million that the Department has blown" ⁴.

Parliament

On 27 January 2021 the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs said it was disappointed that long-standing IT problems were unresolved. Chairperson Bongani Bongo said "It is unacceptable that the IT environment has not improved over the past few financial years." The committee asked for the ABIS irregular expenditure to be investigated and concluded ¹.

At the forensic report hearing in 2021, members called for consequence management. Some members asked why EOH had not been put forward for blacklisting, and Acting Chairperson M Chabane called for urgent action on the report's criminal and disciplinary recommendations ³. The committee returned to ABIS in September 2023, when the department reported on phases, penalties and disciplinary cases ⁶. On 7 October 2025 the committee received AGSA's briefing on the 2024/25 audits ⁹.

Follow-up audits and recommendations

Nexia SAB&T, commissioned by the department on 3 March 2020, delivered a final forensic report on 15 February 2021. It found that confidential department documents, including the project budget, reached EOH before bids closed, that bid evaluation was improper and that the whole contract was irregular. It recommended disciplinary action, referral to the National Prosecuting Authority or the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, and a legal opinion on whether the contract was valid ³. The department's 2022 statement dates the presentation of the report to the committee as 25 May 2021 ⁴.

AGSA recommended a roadmap to resolve ICT issues raised since 2018/19 ⁵. In October 2024 it recommended close monitoring of ABIS and an inquiry into causes of delay beyond the service provider's performance ⁷. For 2024/25, AGSA said the department still depended on legacy systems such as HANIS and that integration problems persisted with ABIS ⁹.

Courts, tribunals and investigations

A criminal case, CAS 145/3/2021, was opened at Pretoria Central on 5 March 2021 and handed to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation on 15 April 2021. Six department officials were named, with charges to be served by 28 May 2021 ³.

In September 2023 the department told the committee that disciplinary proceedings against the six officials were being chaired by a senior counsel and were expected to finish by 21 September. It said it had rejected a penalty settlement offer from IDEMIA and was holding back an R8 million invoice until the dispute was settled ⁶. No public record found as of 19 October 2026 of prosecutions, convictions, disciplinary outcomes or money recovered.

Where it stands now

The department said ABIS Phase 1A went live on 22 November 2022 and that ABIS became the primary system on 8 September 2023 ⁶. For 2024/25, AGSA gave the department a qualified opinion, mainly over contingent liabilities and immovable assets, and said irregular expenditure across the portfolio fell from R614 million to R243 million, with 78% of cases unresolved ⁹. The October 2024 briefing gave the 2023/24 portfolio total as R611 million ⁷. The two figures for the earlier year have not been reconciled in the sources reviewed.

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