Human Rights lawyer Thandie Chauke has welcomed a recent ruling by the High Court in Pretoria, declaring the blocking of identification documents (IDs) by the Department of Home Affairs as unconstitutional.
The court emphasises that the practice of blocking IDs without prior notice, timely investigation, and appeal processes violate constitutional principles.
Lawyers for Human Rights, upon identifying flaws in the process, sought relief from the court against this unconstitutional practice.
Chauke highlights that the Department of Home Affairs relies on unsubstantiated suspicions and executes actions without proper communication or investigation, treating individuals as if they are already guilty before due process.
Chauke explains, “This is what the court order is now prescribing, a process that follows what informs the department to do, which is to notify people, to give them proper reasons as to why you think there’s something wrong with the ID before blocking it and to give them an opportunity to respond to those allegations before blocking the ID…”
“The other thing is that the system is not a very sophisticated system and that it actually doesn’t distinguish between the fraudster and the victim. So if an ID is blocked for suspected fraud, the victim also suffers,” says Chauke.
Home Affairs blocks man’s ID claiming he is a foreigner
