Home Affairs is faced with a dilemma as nearly 4 934 Identification Documents (ID) are awaiting collection at the Grahamstown Home Affairs Office.
Home Affairs is faced with a dilemma as nearly 4 934 Identification Documents (ID) are awaiting collection at the Grahamstown Home Affairs Office.
In the past month alone, 281 IDs have accumulated in their strongroom. Xolile Sibejele, a district manager for Home Affairs, urges citizens to collect their IDs, stressing the inconvenience it has caused for the Grahamstown District Office.
Departmental policy states that any IDs which remain uncollected after six months are returned to the Head Office where they are filed away, often for years at a time.
If the documents remain uncollected they are eventually destroyed.Sibejele outlines several reasons for the uncollected documents.
Often IDs are lost, and after the reapplication of an ID booklet, individuals find their original documents and consequently do not come and collect the new ones.
IDs are also lent out to loan sharks so reapplications are again made and forgotten. If the IDs that have been returned to the Head Office are later requested for collection it often takes up to four months to retrieve them.
For this reason Sibejele emphasises the importance of collecting them before the six month period expires. The Home Affairs Office is implementing several ID distribution plans to solve the growing problem by working in conjunction with councillors, Community Development Workers and community radio stations.
The Home Affairs office often tries to accommodate the public on this issue and when there are enough officials available, are known to visit townships to inform individuals that their documents are ready for collection.
But despite pamphlets being placed in public areas such as churches and the court, Home Affairs continues to struggle to communicate the importance of collecting the documents. Officials have now resorted to wearing vests bearing the statement: “Please collect your ID.”
