Chance for citizens with blocked IDs to resolve issue

The Department of Home Affairs is cracking down on fraud involving identity books and cards.

Through a publication in the Government Gazette, the department has called upon those who are currently in possession of blocked identity documents (IDs) to provide written reasons and representations within 30 days for why their ID should not be cancelled.

The department will also undertake a sustained social media advertising campaign to provide the public with an opportunity to make representations.

Department of Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said through the 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. This includes the biometric system flagging the documents as duplicates, held by illegal immigrants, or because the ID holder had passed away.

By providing the public with an 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 Mr Schreiber.

The gazetting of this measure is also in advancing of compliance with a court order handed down earlier this year, which required the department to undertake a fair administrative process to differentiate between IDs that have been wrongfully blocked and IDs 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,” Mr Schreiber said.

“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,”

The submissions must be sent to Sylvia.Phasha@dha.gov.za