News

We’re pleased to announce that the SAFIRE website has received a fresh new look and feel, designed to improve your browsing experience and make it easier to find the information you need.

Following a period of consultation, and effective from 1 September 2025, SAFIRE has made several changes to its identity provider & service provider requirements, as well as its metadata registration practice statement.

Changes have been made to SAFIRE’s attribute release policy and supported attributes to provide support for two additional REFEDS attribute release profiles: Anonymous Access and Pseudonymous Access.

Following the recommendation of the Participant’s Forum, TENET’s Board of Directors has disestablished SAFIRE’s Steering Committee in favour of the structures already provided for in TENET’s normal contracting.

The SAML2 IdP and SP requirements have been updated to clarify certificate expectations.

The University of Mpumalanga have signed the Participation Agreement, concluded technical integration, and are now a fully functioning identity provider Welcome UMP!

On Thursday 21 September, we held a SAFIRE Participants’ Forum meeting. This post summarises the significant outcome of that meeting.

The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory have concluded technical integration, and are now a fully functioning identity provider. Welcome SARAO!

On Thursday 21 September, we’ll be convening a meeting of the SAFIRE Participants Forum. The preliminary agenda for this meeting contains a single item: the future governance of the South African Identity Federation.

• Venue: ZA·REN Week ‘23 Conference, Protea Hotel Breakwater Lodge, Cape Town
• Date: 21 September 2023
• Time: 13:00-15:00

On Friday 30 June we’ll be performing a major version upgrade of the software that’s at the core of SAFIRE’s federation hub. Although no downtime is expected, you can expect the following:

• All users will need to re-authenticate the first time they access a service after the upgrade;
• There will be cosmetic changes to the user interface, particularly in the information transfer notice.