[Photo source: Gallo Images]

The Pretoria High Court has ruled that the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) practise of blocking South African IDs is unconstitutional, unjust and irregular. The Children’s Institute (CI) has welcomed the Pretoria High Court ruling.

The Department of Home Affairs has been blocking people’s IDs based on whims and suspicion without proper investigation. This has affected 700,000 innocent civilians, while the aim was to block those who acquired IDs fraudulently.

The case was brought to court by Eswatini national Phindile Mazibuko, who was then joined by Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Wise, representing the many other people affected by “ID blocking”.

Senior researcher at the Children’s Institute (CI), Paula Proudlock said: “It is almost impossible to get the ID unblocked, so most of the affected people in the court case were blocked for almost a decade, and many children who are now 17 haven’t yet been given their birth certificate because their parent has been blocked their whole life.”

The court’s decision addresses the issue of children being unable to obtain birth certificates or identity documents, which violates their rights to name, nationality, and identity. The ruling also prohibits the DHA from refusing to register a child’s birth due to a parent’s ID being marked and under investigation.
Evidence presented by the CI showed that children without IDs are at risk of being excluded from social grants and education. At the same time, adolescents face challenges obtaining educational and financial opportunities.

“Home affairs is no longer allowed to block anyone’s ID unless they follow a fair process and obtain a court order to block that person. Home affairs must now follow a 12-month process to finalise investigations on the 70,000 affected parents and children. They are also required to immediately unblock all children so they can acquire their birth certificates and apply for IDs,” Proudlock added.

In response to a legal document, The DHA admitted that the identification documents (IDs) were blocked without following a fair and just administrative process. The DHA acknowledged that this action was inconsistent with the Constitution. The department informed the court that it had developed a new system that is transparent and procedurally fair. However, the new system still involves placing markers or blocking IDs.

In May 2012, the DHA initiated a project to tackle the issue of duplicate IDs on the National Population Register. Initially, 29,000 identity documents had markers placed against them. However, by 2020, the number of blocked IDs had rapidly increased to over 1 million. At the time when the case was heard, the DHA had managed to unblock 1.8 million IDs, but over 700,000 still remain blocked.

Lawyers for Human Rights considers this case a significant success and a first step towards enabling all affected individuals to regain their lives and dignity as citizens.

LISTEN to the full interview with Ml. Sulaimaan Ravat and CI Senior Researcher Paula Proudlock here.