Changing a name or surname, then a new Smart ID

On the Digital Partnership page, name changes and amendments to personal details are not yet available at bank branches. Clients who need those services must visit a Home Affairs office. The services that page does list are Smart ID card re-issues (lost, stolen or damaged) and green ID book to Smart ID card replacements [source]. A re-issue because a surname has already been changed is not in the available list, and it is not in the not-yet list.

Standard Bank's own question is whether you can apply for your new smart ID with the bank if you want to change your surname. The answer is no. The bank says it cannot currently assist with change of surname requests, and that you will be required to visit a Home Affairs branch to complete an application that includes a surname change [source].

The same Standard Bank page, in the in-branch list and in the online list, names a smart ID replacement due to marriage or divorce after your surname has been changed at the Home Affairs office [source]. If the ID contains incorrect information, Standard Bank says you must follow the DHA amendment process at one of their offices [source]. Those are three different sentences. This page does not fold them into one.

The gov.za page still says the green ID book is being replaced over eight years starting in 2014, so an application will not necessarily produce an ID card, and that someone who already has an ID will be invited to apply for the card [source]. The identity documents page describes a Smart ID re-issue as an application you can make, including at banks, offices in malls and mobile offices [source]. Both sentences are current pages. A lost, stolen or damaged card is a different re-issue: Replacing a lost or stolen Smart ID.

The amendments page adds two limits that are not in regulation 18(3). If the applicant is a male and he is married, he may include his wife and the children if they are under 18. If the applicant is a female, she may include her children if she needs them to assume her surname. It also says DHA-24, new and old, is obtainable from Home Affairs [source].

On approval, regulation 18(4) says an alteration under section 24, 25 or 26 is entered in the birth register, and, if the person is in the national population register, included there without erasing the previous forename or surname. The birth-register sentence says "of the minor", although regulation 18(1) is an application by a person of age [source]. Regulation 18(5) says the assumption in subregulation (2)(a), (b) or (d) shall not change the identity number. Subregulation (2) lists (a), (b) and (c). It does not list (d) [source]. The amendments page does not say whether a section 26 change amends the identity number [source].

The amendments page, under section 24, asks for a certified ID or birth certificate of the applicant. Parents must apply on behalf of minor children, and the page says "16 and 17 years respectively". It states an applicable fee for those minors, and an applicable fee for applicants of 18 and older. It says applicants of 18 and older must be published in the government gazette. A person of age who has already been granted a forename change may not apply again, unless there are exceptional circumstances in a SAPS affidavit, or the first change was while the person was still a minor. The identity number may not be amended [source].

Regulation 16 says the application is on Form DHA-85. It repeats the one-change rule. The affidavit in that regulation is "in the Form of an affidavit". It does not name the SAPS. It also says the identity number may not be amended. DHA-85 is not named on the amendments page in the forename block [source, source].

Publication in the Gazette. Section 27 of the 1992 Act, as printed on gov.za, says the Director-General shall as soon as possible after an alteration or amplification under sections 23, 24(1) and 26(2) has been authorised, cause any such alteration or amplification which relates to a person of age to be published in the prescribed manner by notice in the Gazette [source]. Act 43 of 1998 adds section 27(2): that duty does not apply where the alteration was authorised in the prescribed manner under a witness protection plan [source]. The amendments page states the gazette rule for a forename change at 18 and older. It does not put the same sentence in its section 26 block, and it does not state the witness-protection exception [source].

The 1992 Act PDF still defines a major, or a person of age, as 21, or a person declared a major, or a person under 21 who has contracted a legal marriage [source]. Act 1 of 2002 substitutes that definition: 18, or declared a major under the Age of Majority Act, 1972, or under 18 and married [source]. Regulation 20 says that, for an alteration or amplification referred to in section 27, the full names before the change, the identity number, and the altered or amplified forename or surname must be published in the Government Gazette [source].

A gov.za file of 8 November 2024 contains one notice headed as an alteration of surnames under section 26, and another headed as an alteration of forenames under section 24. Both notices correct earlier notices [source]. This page does not copy anyone's name or identity number from that file. A processing time: not stated in the file, on the amendments page, or on the fees page [source, source, source].

The amendments page has a separate block, "rectification of personal particulars", for a surname and for a forename, both under section 7(2). For a surname it asks for a birth certificate or ID copy, a certified ID of a family member with the correct spelling, a SAPS affidavit of the relationship, and a marriage or death certificate of the parents with the correct surname. For a forename it asks for a birth certificate or ID copy. Both blocks say "applicable fee" and "free if it is a departmental error" [source].

The fees page charges R70.00 for any amendment to the birth register, including noting an adoption, and it excludes re-registration under section 11, which is free. That tariff line does not say the fee is waived for a departmental error [source]. The identity-document re-issue line is separately free where the forename was repeated as the surname because the department did not insist on a surname at the first application, and the fees page says the later re-issue of that document is also free [source]. Which of these lines a spelling correction uses: the pages do not say.

The amendments page does not say that the amendment application produces a Smart ID [source]. The identity documents page describes the Smart ID re-issue as its own application, at R140.00, with a marriage certificate if your status has changed and a divorce decree if you are divorced [source].

Standard Bank will take that later card, in branch and online, when the reason is marriage or divorce and the surname has already been changed at a Home Affairs office. In branch it takes walk-ins, and the "what you will need" line is your green bar-coded ID or your driver's licence. A marriage certificate on that line: not stated. Online, you visit on the appointment date with your ID, and you need the reference that confirms payment and booking. In branch, Standard Bank says you pay at the branch. The cost it states for a smart ID is a R140 Department of Home Affairs fee, and it says it is currently not charging a convenience fee [source]. Collection from that branch, the SMS, and the 12 months Standard Bank states, are on Collecting a Smart ID or passport.

Capitec, FNB, Absa and Nedbank do not name this marriage or divorce replacement. Whether one of those branches will print the card after Home Affairs has already changed the surname: not stated by source [source, source, source, source].

A free Smart ID because the holder is 60 and the reason is a name change: not stated. The free service for a person of 60 on the identity documents page is a conversion from the green ID book [source]. Whether the green ID book is still valid is on Green ID book to Smart ID.

DHA's travel documents page says passports are issued with the names as they appear in the National Population Register (NPR) at the time of application. Any change of name must be applied for, finalised and recorded in the NPR before the passport application is submitted [source]. Where a passport application can be made, and which bank page names one: Applying for a passport.

The Digital Partnership page still lists name changes as not yet available at those branches [source]. Standard Bank's online list does name a passport, and its surname-change answer still sends you to a Home Affairs branch for the change itself [source].

The fee for a change of forename or surname of a minor, under sections 24 and 25, is R70.00 [source]. Regulation 17 says the surname application is on Form DHA-193, and that the identity number of a minor whose surname was altered under section 25 may not be amended [source]. Act 1 of 2002 says the natural father's written consent is not required where the mother has sole guardianship of the child, notwithstanding section 25(1)(b) and (c) [source].

The amendments page prints separate document lists for a minor's surname, including marriage to a stepfather, divorce, a deceased father, and a guardian. This page does not copy those lists. The forms are provided at a Home Affairs office [source]. A child's first Smart ID, which is a different application, is on First Smart ID at 16. The Digital Partnership page says children cannot apply at those bank branches [source].

• Marriage. The 1997 Act, as amended in 2002, says section 26(1) does not apply to the three marriage cases it lists, and those cases are worded for a woman [source, source]. The amendments page and regulation 18(2) say a section 26(2) reason must relate to a change in the marital status of a woman, or to one of the other two reasons [source, source]. The gov.za re-issue page and the identity documents page describe an ID application with a marriage, and they do not mention section 26 [source, source].
• Who the marriage rule covers. The Act proviso says "a woman" and "the man". The gov.za spouse bullet says "if you are married" and does not say it is limited to a woman [source, source].
• Documents for section 26. The amendments page asks for a SAPS affidavit and DHA-24. Regulation 18(3) asks for certified identity or birth documents, parents' documents, and, where applicable, a marriage certificate, a death certificate, a witness-protection letter and proof of payment. Neither list includes every item from the other [source, source].
• The Act citation for witness protection. The amendments page writes "Act No. 112 of 198" after naming the Witness Protection Act, 1998. The regulation writes "Act No. 112 of 1998" [source, source].
• Gazette. Section 27 covers an alteration under sections 23, 24(1) and 26(2) for a person of age, with a 1998 exception for a witness protection plan [source, source]. The amendments page states publication for a forename at 18 and older, and not in its section 26 block [source]. The 1992 PDF defines a person of age as 21. The 2002 amendment substitutes 18 [source, source].
• The fee for a correction. The amendments page says a surname or forename rectification is free if it is a departmental error. The R70 birth-register tariff does not say that [source, source].
• The card after the change. Standard Bank lists a marriage or divorce replacement once Home Affairs has changed the surname. The Digital Partnership page does not list that service, and it does list name changes as not yet available [source, source].
• Regulation 18(5) cites paragraph (d). The reasons in regulation 18(2) stop at (c) [source].

• A processing time for a forename change or a surname change [source, source, source].
• That the amendment fee includes the Smart ID, or that updating the register posts a card to you [source, source, source].
• A forename change or a surname change at Capitec, FNB, Absa or Nedbank [source, source, source, source].
• That Standard Bank's marriage or divorce replacement is available for a forename change, or for a section 26 surname that was not a marriage or a divorce. The service line says marriage or divorce. The FAQ refuses a change of surname, without that limit [source].
• A husband's route in the words of section 26(1). The proviso read here is worded for a woman [source, source].
• Which age an office will use if it reads the 1992 PDF (21) rather than the 2002 substitution (18) [source, source].
• The steps to change the gender recorded on the register. The gov.za list includes it, and the amendments page has a separate rectification block. This page does not set that application out [source, source].