In a country grappling with soaring crime rates, justice minister Mmamoloko Kubayi recently held a pivotal meeting about fighting crime that has not received the kind of public attention it deserves.
This gathering, which included police officials, the minister of Home Affairs, and senior telecoms industry players, highlighted the correlation between incorrectly registered SIM cards and those used in the planning or execution of various crimes, from banking fraud, to kidnappings and contract killings.
Minister Kubayi's acknowledgement of this serious security threat underscores an obvious vulnerability in South Africa’s SIM card registration system. At least three-quarters of SIM cards are incorrectly registered.
The anonymity afforded by unregistered SIM cards serves as a boon for criminals, making it nearly impossible for law enforcement to trace suspects, as the high-level meeting heard.
This is even as the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act (RICA) mandates that every SIM card must be registered to a verifiable individual using an ID or passport number.
As the meeting acknowledged, RICA hasn’t been properly enforced in two decades, something now widely known and accepted.
The justice minister’s meeting flagged several risks: SIM cloning, identity theft, cyber crime and money-laundering. Each of these criminal activities thrives in an environment where SIM cards are not linked to their users.
RICA hasn’t been properly enforced in two decades, something now widely known and accepted.
This is despite the fact that countries as diverse as India, the UAE, Thailand and Nigeria all mandate proper registration of SIM cards. India, for example, managed to link a billion people’s SIM cards to biometrics despite its developing nature and vast geography.
In stark contrast to the best practice in these countries, in South Africa tens of millions of incorrectly registered SIM cards are released every year. This is largely because third-party distributors are incentivised to distribute as many SIM cards as possible, as they earn commission on airtime linked to them.
These third-party distributors bulk-register SIM cards, which is easy to do as most of these SIM cards are not securely packaged, meaning their unique identifying numbers are visible. This is what makes bulk pre-registration possible.
As the meeting highlighted, there is also a problematic loophole in Section 40 of the RICA, which has been exploited to the detriment of public safety. This section allows individuals to register SIM cards on behalf of others.
This provision was included to allow for legitimate usage such as a husband for registering a SIM card for his wife, or a parent for their children. However, this provision has been misused, leading to a situation where third-party distributors bulk-register millions of SIM cards linked to fake names and fraudulent 13-digit “ID” numbers.
The loophole needs to be closed.
Minister Kubayi’s call for a closer look at these distributors represents a step in the right direction. Responsibility does not solely rest with government; telecommunications companies must also take accountability. They cannot feign ignorance about the activities of their distributors, with which they work closely on a frequent basis.
One solution could be reducing the number of SIM cards distributed per person each year, which number more than four per adult. Most adults do not get three to four new SIM cards every year. But the churn allows SIM cards to be easily used once by a criminal and discarded.
A reasonable limit on how many cards an individual could register would stop the proliferation of SIM cards available for once-off use.
Another simple yet effective solution could be the introduction of tamper-proof packaging for SIM cards. This would safeguard each card’s identifying information and make copying near impossible, with cards packaged in a non-sequential order so that their unique numbers cannot be seen, nor calculated or guessed.
As South Africa grapples with escalating crime rates, addressing this weakness in the SIM registration system becomes imperative. The meeting convened by minister Kubayi is a positive step forward in strengthening law enforcement’s ability to combat crime.
Allowing the anonymity of unregistered SIM cards to continue fuelling crime poses unacceptable risks, especially when the solutions are relatively simple, and the law already exists to mandate registering cards to their users.
As Home Affairs minister Leon Schreiber pointed out, simple technology to verify individuals exists and is used by banks when they register individuals outside of bank branches. What banks do is match a person’s selfie to photos and data on file at Home Affairs.
SIM cards could also be linked to biometrics using facial recognition technology, which would require matching a user’s selfie to the Department of Home Affairs picture database.
Untraceable SIM cards, a silent enabler of organised crime, must and can be stopped.
Law enforcement and telecommunications companies must collaborate closely to ensure the laws designed to protect citizens receive vigorous enforcement, especially when the technology to enforce them already exists.
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