Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says there are over 500 000 uncollected IDs at their offices. He says, however, that the figure does not mean that half a million people would be unable to register or to vote in the upcoming elections.
He says some of the applicants already have green barcoded IDs and had applied for smart cards.
Motsoaledi and the Electoral Commission were briefing Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee on the commission’s readiness for this weekend’s voter registration drive ahead of the 2024 general elections.
“Honourable members when we announced that there are 500 000 IDs uncollected, in the mind of the public and the members is that if those IDs are not collected, 500 000 people will never register and will never vote. But the Deputy Minister has just explained that actually, that will affect 125 000 out of which 10 000 were collected. The others as he said apart from people who passed on who are 64 000, are people who are coming for the second time and most of them do have IDs but they are coming to apply for a smart ID card. You are aware that in Home Affairs we still have the old barcoded ID and the smart ID.”
