The Department of Home Affairs has issued a government gazette, requesting individuals who are currently in possession of a blocked ID to provide written submissions and representations within 30 days for why their ID should not be cancelled.
The department said these measures are meant to combat fraud involving identity books and cards.
“Through this move, Home Affairs aims to both resolve the decades-old issue of wrongfully blocked IDs while reducing the number of fraudulent documents in circulation.
Some of the IDs were originally blocked as far back as 2005 for a range of reasons, including because the biometric system flagged the documents as duplicates, held by illegal immigrants, or because the ID holder had passed away.
By providing the public with the opportunity to make representations, the Department intends to end the inconvenience caused by the block to holders of legitimate IDs, while cancelling IDs held by unauthorised persons,” said Home Affairs Minister, Dr Leon Schreiber.
The minister said the measure is also to comply with a court order, which required the department to undertake a fair administrative process to differentiate between IDs that have been wrongfully blocked, and those that represent genuine security threats.
“I encourage members of the public to make use of this opportunity to ensure that we conduct a just and equitable process to unblock IDs that have been wrongfully blocked.
At the same time, the gazetting of these decisive measures underscores our commitment to clamp down on fraud, and to move with urgency to resolve long standing challenges while upholding the rule of law,” added Schreiber.
