The Department of Home Affairs announced on Friday that it is taking “decisive action” against fraud involving identity books and cards.
The department has called upon persons who are currently in possession of blocked IDs to provide written reasons and representations within 30 days for why their ID should not be cancelled.
The campaign is aimed at resolving the decades-old issue of wrongfully blocked IDs while reducing the number of fraudulent documents in circulation.
According to Home Affairs, 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 explained that it intends to end the inconvenience caused by the block to holders of legitimate IDs, while cancelling IDs held by unauthorised persons.
In addition, the gazetting of this measure is in furtherance 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.
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