Is Home Affairs reinventing apartheid with ID policies?

Dear Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber,

From the end of this year, your department will no longer be issuing the green ID books. Perhaps you need to tell SABC that this is not the same as saying the books will no longer be valid, as their reporting doesn’t seem to make the distinction.

Replacing the green books with the metal ID cards has to be a good idea. I know this was in train before you took office, but I agree that South Africa should move with the times. Also, those green books have a max shelf life of about 10 years before they start falling apart.

However, why is it that only people born in SA can obtain the cards? People who are citizens by naturalisation and permanent residents are currently barred from obtaining these IDs, according to your website.

The cynical among us might think the government of our country is using this as a quick way to identify “foreigners”… or, even worse, move towards doing away entirely with citizenship by naturalisation.

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And if it is not either of these, then please explain the rationale behind this new apartheid…

And bear in mind, the sinister similarity to the yellow stars in Germany in the 1930s which enabled instant identification of “the other”…

As someone who has been a citizen of this country by naturalisation for 25 years – having jumped through the myriad legal hoops of work permit, residence permit, time of residence – I am an interested party.

But then there are thousands of others like me, who, according to our constitution, have the same rights as born South Africans – yet the department of home affairs seems to be arbitrarily and unilaterally rewriting that constitution.

Please tell us, sir, that the current procedure is merely a logistics exercise – perhaps so you can double check the bona fides of naturalised people to weed out those who have bought their documents.

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Mind you, given the level of corruption in your department, who’s to say that even birth certificates showing people were born here are genuine?

The story of a certain beauty queen with fake birth certificate comes to mind…

While we’re on the subject of birth certificates, why is it easier for the proverbial camel to somersault through the eye of a needle than to get a “vault copy” birth certificate out of your department?

I know of a few people – including my son, who was born here – being sent from pillar to post with all sorts of excuses, ranging from system problems to a fire in the records department.

Having said that, I must add that if you pull this off – making home affairs professional and efficient – you’ll deserve all the medals a grateful country can throw at you.

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