A VIEW OF THE WEEK: Your ID may be green but is it gold?

I have a confession.

I, perhaps like you, spend too much time searching for my ID.

It doesn’t help that I am still stuck in the 90s with a green ID book and not the card that is easier to stick in your wallet.

At times the search is tedious and frustrating, and I wonder if it is worth all the bother. In those moments I think that I hardly use my ID and that’s why I keep losing it, forgetting that this hide-and-seek happens often enough for it to have favourite hiding places.

A future held hostage

I was reminded of the importance of this often neglected document again this week when a 21-year-old woman from Khayelitsha claimed her former principal confiscated her ID card because she owed school fees. She was also allegedly unable to get her matric results statement because of the outstanding debt.

This caused an avalanche of problems, with the woman unable to apply for further education opportunities or jobs without the documents.

The school denied the claims and the provincial government is looking into the matter.

ALSO READ: A VIEW OF THE WEEK: Look out below! We live in cities stolen piece by piece

Extortion spreads to schools

It could however prove that the pathetic, unlawful, and corrupt practice of ID document ransom and extortion has also gripped schools.

Not content with manipulating and devastating the lives of the poor who give up their IDs as collateral on loans, or demanding them in extortion rackets, the scourge now targets the even more vulnerable who are just looking for an education and a brighter future.

Allowed to run amok for so long, extortionists have spread their poisonous tentacles through construction mafias and the kidnapping of businesspeople, and into the everyday lives of many South Africans.

National police commissioner General Fanie Masemola revealed on Thursday that 319 extortion cases were opened nationally between April 2024 and August 2024. Although these complaints were concentrated in the Western and Eastern Cape, extortion is severely underreported and rampant across the country.

ALSO READ: A VIEW OF THE WEEK: Police and private security are now the cowboys in SA’s crime Wild West

Who are you, and what do you have?

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber has rightly identified that digitising systems will fight corruption and potential identity theft. His department has also been active in working with law enforcement to clamp down on illegal immigration.

But there is more to do.

Like calls this week to have Sars customs officials in every cigarette manufacturing facility to improve declarations and revenue collection, home affairs officials should be part of every police operation. They should focus on all forms of identity crimes and extortion, not just whether a person “has papers”.

South Africans also need to see more high-ranking home affairs officials who are involved in these crimes brought to book.

This will breed confidence that stealing a South African identity is not as cheap and easy as buying bread.

Stripped of being a pawn or tool of crime, maybe then our IDs will be as precious to us as gold.

NOW READ: A VIEW OF THE WEEK: Two-pot system is hearty meal for some and just bones for others