He told a media briefing in Parliament: "People don't understand the gravity of identity theft. There is a need to continue efforts to work together with the Justice Department to make sure people end up in prison."
He also spoke about the efforts made by his department to deal with the corruption that facilitates the issuing of fake identity documents and passports. Part of these efforts involves the denial of access to critical areas for people who don't officially need it.
He also spoke about a new improvement in the quality of photographs required for both passports and identity books. Instead of applicants bringing in photographs which have to be posted in and laminated, applicants are to be photographed on the spot and the picture then electronically transmitted directly on to the paper.
In addition the DG described the campaign, launched by his new minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, to ensure an end to the late registration of births.
Although technically births should be registered within 30 days the campaign aims to ensure that births are registered by the time the baby is one year old, and the first target is to ensure that all births are registered before the child is 16 years old.
Late registration panels are being established in each province to ensure that corruption of the process is kept to an absolute minimum.
The department is also beginning again the long-drawn-out process of designing and commissioning smart-card identity documents. Msimang explained that the process ran into the ground in 2007 because of the intervention team attempting to clean up the department, who banned the issuing of any tenders for a period. Only when Fifa demanded improvements in the identity system as a precondition for awarding the right to hold next year's soccer World Cup here did matters resume progress.
Discussions have now opened between the department, the National Treasury, and Sita, the government's IT agency.
The director general spoke to the media after briefing the Parliamentary committee on his department's annual report – in particular about the fact that the auditor general slapped his annual financial statements with another qualification. Msimang maintained however that the qualification showed that matters are indeed turning around. The previous year the department's accounts were disclaimed – the worst kind of audit report.
He also promised that the matters that gave rise to the qualification would be entirely dealt with by the end of next month.
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