Mobile industry lobby group the Association for Comms & Technology (ACT) has filed an application with the high court in Pretoria to have regulations introduced by home affairs minister Leon Schreiber, in which he hiked the fee for accessing the national population register database by as much as 6 500%, overturned.
ACT said on Tuesday that the reason it chose to pursue legal action is that “repeated requests for meaningful engagements and consultation” were not heeded by the minister and his department prior to – and even after the introduction of – the new fee structure.
“The absence of meaningful, transparent and inclusive public consultation constitutes a significant departure from the principles of cooperative governance and accountability enshrined in the constitution and the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act,” said ACT CEO Nomvuyiso Batyi in a statement.
Gazetted in May and enacted on 1 July 2025, the new regulations create a significantly more expensive fee structure for accessing home affairs’ online verification system. The move led to backlash from players in the banking, lending and mobile telecommunications space who rely on access to the database to verify the identity of those who apply for their services.
ACT members are Cell C, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, MTN South Africa, Rain, Vodacom South Africa and Telkom, which are all obliged by Rica legislation to verify the identity of Sim card registrants. It said that by maintaining Rica compliance, its members play a crucial role in mitigating against “egregious” crimes that can occur when Sim cards are obtained by fraudulent means.
Costs
According to ACT, the up-to 6 500% increase in the fee – from 15c to R10 – will have a negative impact on the processes used by telecoms operators to provide their services. Other industries are affected in similar ways.
“This huge increase will make it far more expensive for network operators, banks and other companies to verify their customers’ identities. Ultimately, this will likely push up the cost of essential services for millions of South Africans who are already under financial pressure,” said ACT.
Read: War of words erupts over home affairs database fee hike
ACT said its grounds for challenging Schreiber’s move are:
- The minister’s decision was taken without properly consulting with the affected industries and stakeholders;
- The fee increase is unjustified and baseless, disproportionate, and not rationally connected to the stated objectives or the information before the minister;
- The regulations have a detrimental effect on telecoms, financial services and all industries reliant on consumer identity verification; and
- The absence of a transitional period and the abrupt implementation of the new fees continuously cause irreparable harm to operators and the public.
According to ACT, the review application was shared with the home affairs minister and the department of communications & digital technologies on 13 January. The deadline for the home affairs ministry to file an intention to defend is close of business on Tuesday.
TechCentral reached out to the home affairs ministry for comment on Tuesday, but no feedback had been provided by the time of publication. However, in prior retorts to criticism of the hike in the fees, Schreiber said previous underpricing had led to abuse of the system and profiteering behaviour from those granted access.
Schreiber said home affairs’ famous “system offline” problems were partly due to system abuse that would be curbed by higher prices. As a salvo to the massive hike in the fee for real-time verifications, the updated fee structure included a much lower fee of R1/query for after-hours verification. Schreiber reasoned that driving more the traffic to the after-hours tier would lead to more uptime and less frequent downtime issues.
Read: System offline’ scourge to end, says Schreiber – but industry must pay
Furthermore, Schreiber argued that below-market-rate pricing deprived home affairs of the resources needed to maintain the system. TechCentral will update this article once commentary from the department is received. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
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