Gigaba: Too many still without IDs

26 February 2016 - 08:38 By BABALO NDENZE

South Africans without IDs could die without officially having ever existed, said Home Affairs minister Malusi Gigaba.He added that there are 200,000 uncollected IDs and 5000 uncollected green barcoded IDs.Gigaba said: "Ideally, we would like to know who is in the country, where they live, what their ID or passport numbers are, what their visa card number is, where they obtained it and other details."He said South Africa attracts large volumes of "mixed migration flows", thus increasing the number of undocumented persons residing in the country."There are many security risks that pertain to the police and other institutions, but there are also socioeconomic risks."For example, when a person with no ID passes away, they will be laid to rest without them ever having been known to exist, except among their group of friends or family."He said burials could only be performed after a death certificate is issued."It becomes difficult when we have to issue a handwritten certificate."He noted that many people tried to use fraudulent baptismal certificates as proof of citizenship...

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