Duplicate ID problem

THE national department of home affairs is driving a national campaign to resolve problems with duplicate identity numbers.

The department has published a supplement with the names of 29677 South Africans to either visit their nearest home affairs office or sms the world ‘DUPLICATE’ or the letter ‘D’ followed by their 13 digit ID number to 32551 at a cost of R1.

Departmant spokeswoman Manusha Pillai said from January to May, they have resolved 6,335 cases.

One of those affected is a Duncan Village, East London, woman who had been struggling to get an ID document for six years due to a duplication issue. As a result of the mix-up, none of her six children had a birth certificate.

Nobontilana Tshengisi, 42, first applied for an ID at the Butterworth home affairs office in 2005. She had lost her pass book in 1997. After her application it was found she shared an ID number with another person, who was younger than her.

Tshengisi said she was delighted when she received her ID in May after the intervention of the Butterworth home affairs manager, Sibongile Mfaxa, following publication of her dilemma.

Tshengisi said Mfaxa made the delivery to her township personally and for this she was very grateful as the domestic worker had to use her own money to travel between East London and Butterworth over the past six years.

Now Tshengisi is in the process of getting married to the father of her children and her children can finally get birth certificates.

The department said in the supplement that duplicate ID numbers also lead to people not being able to transact with business, banks, insurance companies, educational institutions and other government agencies.

There are two main categories of people affected by duplicate ID numbers:

- The first relates is when two or more people share the same ID number and

- The second is where one person has multiple ID numbers.

To resolve an issue of duplicate ID numbers, those affected should produce two ID-sized photos, proof of birth, marriage certificate or a divorce decree or death certificate of spouse if the spouse is deceased, a completed BI-9 form with up to date contact information, copy of both parents IDs or copy of their death certificates if deceased, copies of passport if the applicant has one, copy of ID or if lost and affidavit indicating this, copies of Junior or Senior certificates with ID number.

In the case of immigrants, the requirements include a verified copy of the exemption or permanent residence or naturalisation certificate. Female applicants with children are to submit copies of the birth certificates of all their children.