Over half of the 1.3 million people who applied for a re-issue of their identity documents (ID) in the past year, failed to collect them, Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Tuesday.

Speaking during debate on her department's Budget vote, she said home affairs offices were sitting with more than 750,000 unclaimed IDs.

"This year, we processed 1,353,256 applications from people who applied for second, or third, IDs. As we speak, we are sitting with 494,367 uncollected IDs in our various offices, and a further 266,785 at our head office.

"So, in total, we have more than 750,000 uncollected IDs -- and those are of people who applied for a second ID."

Dlamini-Zuma said a survey by her department had found that most of those who had not collected their IDs, had applied for new ones when they had merely misplaced the original.

"Once they found their IDs, they did not return to our offices to collect the re-issued ones."

She called on people to act responsibly and value and protect their IDs, warning that re-issues "increase the possibility of duplicate IDs and identity theft by unscrupulous elements".

Turning to her department's plans to issue an ID "smart card", she said this would be rolled out during the next (2012/13) financial year.

"Last year we committed to piloting the smart card. In this regard, we are pleased to inform the House that this has been done.

"The GPW [Government Printing Works] has produced the Crew Member Certificate, which is used internationally by our pilots and crew members.

"This has laid a solid foundation for piloting an ID smart card in this financial year, with a roll out in the 2012/13 financial year," Dlamini-Zuma said.