Concerns about 700,000 blocked South African IDs

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has yet to provide an update on the permanent cancellation of 700,000 ID books and cards nearly two months after a key deadline expired for those whose documents were wrongfully blocked.

It may also need to go to extraordinary measures to avoid a future legal challenge against the cancellation of the documents.

The DHA gazetted a notice on 16 August 2024 asking people with blocked IDs to provide written reasons and representations why their IDs should not be cancelled.

Home Affairs director-general Tommy Makhode said that he would cancel the IDs if he did not receive the requested feedback.

He explained the correctly-blocked IDs had to be cancelled because they were:

• issued to people who are not eligible to be included in the national population register;
• did not correctly reflect the particulars of the persons to whom they are issued;
• were fraudulently obtained through false statements and false information provided when they were applied for and issued; or
• were forged or unlawfully altered with the names and/or photos after being stolen.

A media statement from the DHA said the notice intended to resolve the decades-old issue of wrongfully blocked IDs while also 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,” the DHA said.

“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.”

The DHA’s warning of cancellation came after a January 2024 Pretoria High Court ruling that the department’s decision to block IDs without notice or an appeal process was unconstitutional.

The matter was brought before the court by Phindile Mazibuko, who was later joined by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and Legal Wise, representing other people impacted by alleged wrongful ID blocking.

The court ordered that the DHA must stop blocking people’s IDs without a fair procedure in line with the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act.

Deputy Home Affairs minister Njabulo Nzuza confirmed to eNCA that the department had stopped accepting submissions for reasons to unblock IDs on Monday, 16 September 2024.

However, nearly two months later, the DHA has yet to confirm whether it had proceeded with cancelling those blocked documents for which it did not receive submissions.

DHA’s notice may not be enough to justify cancellation

According to the University of Cape Town’s Children’s Institute, the department must take several steps to comply with the court order.

Firstly, it would need to notify people in writing that a problem has been found with their ID.

Those who had not attempted to use their ID after it was blocked would not be aware of the issue.

Secondly, it must allow people reasonable time and opportunity to present their side of the story to the DHA.

Thirdly, it must conduct a proper investigation and then provide the impacted person with written reasons for blocking their ID.

Finally, it must obtain a court order before blocking the ID.

It would be difficult to imagine the DHA being able to tick all the aforementioned boxes, particularly given the sheer number of court orders it would need to obtain to block each of the 700,000 IDs.

Therefore, it could again run into legal problems if it cancelled the documents.

One noteworthy development a few days after the deadline expired was the High Court ruling that 142 of LHR’s clients‘ ID books must be unblocked.

The court ruled that the 30-day deadline gazetted by the DHA did not apply to these clients, who had proven their cases in court.

South Africa’s decades-old green ID book has outdated security features and is highly susceptible to fraud.

A report by Smile ID found that the green ID book was the most targeted ID document in Africa for fraudsters.

Complicating the issue further is that many DHA employees have been found to be in cahoots with criminal syndicates who forge IDs using stolen or bought identities.

To address the issue, the DHA is gradually replacing the document with the Smart ID card, which features vastly superior security, including a built-in encrypted microchip.