Is RICA process working?

vetkoek

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Mar 10, 2015
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South african government promulgated the regulation that all network subscribers must RICA their Simcard so that it will be able to know who uses that number. But almost in every corner of any city you find dozens of network agencies busy selling RICAed Starter packs. Even if you go some foreign owned shop without ID, they you can buy starter pack without any problem. My question is do the network providers really confine them selves with regulations or they just care for increasing their subscribers? If they really respect the regulations, how on earth they allow the registration of more than ten simcards with only one ID?
 

deweyzeph

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RICA is a joke. The South African ID book is so insecure it's laughable, and the address verification is even worse. Anyone with a printer can make up any old thing and show that as "proof" of address.

Also there are many shops that will happily sell you a prerica'd sim card, no id or proof of address required.
 

grok

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RICA is a joke. The South African ID book is so insecure it's laughable, and the address verification is even worse. Anyone with a printer can make up any old thing and show that as "proof" of address.

Also there are many shops that will happily sell you a prerica'd sim card, no id or proof of address required.

RICA's just another ANC cadre money making tender.
 

The_MAC

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In theory its a good idea, in practice it all falls apart. I wonder how more robust the FICA process is?
 

deweyzeph

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In theory its a good idea, in practice it all falls apart. I wonder how more robust the FICA process is?

FICA is just as much of a joke, especially when it comes to address verification. There are so many different documents that can be used to verify your address that the whole process is essentially meaningless.
 

MrGray

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FICA is just as much of a joke, especially when it comes to address verification. There are so many different documents that can be used to verify your address that the whole process is essentially meaningless.

I wish this was true and you really could use "so many documents". Ever tried to FICA yourself at a bank when you have no accounts, street postal delivery and don't technically own the property you live in?
 

deweyzeph

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I wish this was true and you really could use "so many documents". Ever tried to FICA yourself at a bank when you have no accounts, street postal delivery and don't technically own the property you live in?

Yes, I'm in the same position, I live in an area of Cape Town that has no street delivery. I just printed out a bill with my home address on it that gets emailed to me on my home printer and the bank was happy to accept it. I made sure to fold it up nicely so it looked like it was posted to me.
 

Billy

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Feb 8, 2004
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I wish this was true and you really could use "so many documents". Ever tried to FICA yourself at a bank when you have no accounts, street postal delivery and don't technically own the property you live in?

My wife had this problem. A certified letter from me was not acceptable, but a rates account for a property that is rented out was OK.

So to FICA, we no longer live together.
 

The_MAC

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MrGray

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I used to always scratch my head about the same thing, as our house is registered in my Wifes name, but then realised that you can use quite a lot of different docs: https://www.fnb.co.za/about-fnb/legal-matters/documents-to-verify-address.html

I do not have a single one of those. The house is in a trust so no rates or anything have my details, the car is owned by the company, none of that other documentation bears the street address. In the end I have to write a letter to myself in my capacity as a trustee attesting to the fact that I live there, then take it to a police station to be notarised. It is beyond mindless and completely meaningless.
 
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