Buzzapp Master In a bid to clamp down on identity fraud, the home affairs department has urged people with blocked IDs to provide written reasons and representations why their IDs should not be cancelled.
Department director-general Tommy Livhuwani Makhode issued the notice in a Gazette on Friday and said representations should be made within 30 days of the notice.
“The identity documents or cards do not correctly reflect the particulars of the people to whom they were issued. The identity documents or cards were fraudulently obtained in that false statements were made and false information was provided at the time of application and issuance of the identity documents or cards,” Makhode said.
It might be, in some cases, because the identity documents or cards lawfully issued to other people were stolen or unlawfully obtained or altered to reflect the names or the facial image or photograph of the person whose particulars were not to be included in the population register.
Should he not receive the written reasons or representations he would cancel the identity document or card.
The department said it aims to resolve the decades-old issue of wrongfully blocked IDs while reducing the number of fraudulent documents in circulation.
“I encourage members of the public to use this opportunity to ensure we conduct a just and equitable process to unblock IDs that have been wrongfully blocked. The gazetting of these measures underscores our commitment to clamp down on fraud and resolve long-standing challenges while upholding the rule of law,” said home affairs minister Leon Schreiber.
Department spokesperson Siya Qoza said some IDs were blocked as long ago as 2005 for various reasons, including because the biometric system flagged the documents as duplicates, held by illegal immigrants, or because the ID holder had died.
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 people.
The gazetting of the measure is also in 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.
Submissions must be sent to [email protected].
The department said it will also undertake a social media advertising campaign to allow the public to make representations.
TimesLIVE
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