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South Africans urged to collect IDs at Home Affairs

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People across the country are being urged to make use of the extended hours at Home Affairs offices to collect their identity documents so they can vote on Wednesday.

Home Affairs is extending working hours from Monday until Election Day on Wednesday. This is to enable citizens to collect their Id’s to vote.

Last week Deputy Minister Fatima Chohan said 300 000 IDs are still uncollected at various Home Affairs offices nationwide.

Offices, nationally, will be open from 7 am to 5 pm on special votes and on Wednesday it will open from 7 am to 9 pm.

Operations officer for the Independent Electoral Commission in KwaZulu-Natal, Ntombifuthi Masinga says people who have lost their IDs must apply for a temporary document.

“This is to allow people who haven’t yet collected their IDs to collect them from home affairs offices but it is also an opportunity for people who have lost their IDs to apply for their temporary ID certificates.  Those kinds of applications will be fast tracked to make sure that people do have their temporary ID certificates to be able to vote today (Monday) or on the Election Day itself.”

Home Affairs in the Western Cape says people who come to collect their IDs from now until Election Day on Wednesday, will be prioritised.

More than 47 000 IDs have not yet been collected in the province.

Voters are required to have their ID smart card, Green ID Book or temporary ID on hand to vote.

In Bloemfontein, many people have started to queue at the busy Home Affairs office to get temporary IDs to vote on Wednesday. Some of the people, who have queued, say they have lost their IDs and want to cast their votes on Wednesday.


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