Duplicate IDs number 121 000

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) this week reiterated its appeal to citizens to verify their fingerprints.

This was aimed specifically at those citizens and bank clients whose fingerprints cannot be verified on the online fingerprint verification system. They should approach the nearest Home Affairs offices to have their fingerprints re-taken to enable them to transact, says the department.

During a media briefing last week, DHA director-general Mkuseli Apleni said verifying fingerprints is more important now that the department has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the South African Banking Risk Information Centre on the online fingerprint verification system.

Through this, participating banks are verifying the identity of their clients using a fingerprint reader. The fingerprint image is communicated to the department's Home Affairs National Identification System, and the fingerprint is verified as a positive or negative match. This is aimed at ensuring the security of a citizen's ID and their bank accounts and financial transactions through banks.

“We reiterate our conviction that the launch last year of the online fingerprint verification system will go a long way in contributing to national efforts aimed at pushing back the frontiers of fraud and corruption,” said Apleni.

He explained that failure to verify a fingerprint on the system does not necessarily imply ID theft or fraud, but rather that the fingerprints on record at the DHA systems may not be clear or easily readable.

“We have observed that in the transferring of paper records to electronic ones, fingerprints that were taken a long time ago, or were not properly stored, may have diminished in quality and clarity, which could affect the verification of the fingerprint.”

Apleni also said it is a lack of fingerprints on the system that lead to duplicate IDs, an issue that the department is particularly concerned about, as there are currently 83 000 South Africans who have two IDs at the same time, with a further 38 000 sharing the same ID numbers.

“You must remember that it is your fingerprints that identify you uniquely from another person. If there are no fingerprints, the possibility of duplicating an ID number is very real. The minister is fully cognisant that these duplicate IDs create a situation in which lives of ordinary people halt to a standstill - in that they are unable to transact with business, banks, insurance companies, educational institutions, government agencies such as Social Development.”

A list of all those South Africans affected will be published on the department's Web site and in print and electronic media soon, says the department.

“How did this happen? Before 1994, we had what was called Bantustan states with different IDs, and others didn't even have the fingerprint system. When we were preparing for elections, as government we took a decision we will only use the green bar coded ID document. Now, at that time, because of the pressure of cleaning the system in time for elections, we just went to the system, looked for ID numbers, and then issued documents. We did not follow the normal procedure where we took fingerprints, etc.”