Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi says there are more than 566,000 identity documents that have not been collected at their offices.
He said there were many reasons that make people not collect their IDs for months.
Among the reasons is that they don’t have money for transport, long queues discourage clients or they have not updated their contact details or moved elsewhere.
Motsoaledi was replying to a question in Parliament by EFF MP Thapelo Mogale on the number of IDs that had been left unclaimed.
However, they were putting measures in place to ensure that they reduce the number of uncollected IDs.
Motsoaledi was also quick to add that out of the 566,000 uncollected IDs, more than 63,000 IDs were for people who have since died.
“Total number of uncollected ID documents is 566, 429 Out of 566, 429 cases there are 63,452 deceased cases, leaving a balance of 502, 977 uncollected IDs,” said Motsoaledi.
He said they were working with other departments, local municipalities and other state institutions to get people to collect their ID documents.
“There are also Community Outreach Programmes in partnerships with the IEC, Department of Basic Education, Metros, Districts and Local Municipalities. Uncollected ID volumes are shared with stakeholders to market and encourage clients to collect their documents through the various platforms provided,” said Motsoaledi.
They will also work with the IEC during the voter registration weekends in November.
The minister also said they have revamped their systems.
“The department recently enhanced its Branch Appointment Booking System with a ‘collections’ option in order for clients to schedule an appointment to collect their IDs in all live capture offices. The modernisation system was also enhanced with a new capability for front offices to ‘redirect’ IDs and passports to alternative offices as required by the client,“ said Motsoaledi.
He also urged the public to collect their IDs during extended hours.
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