The Department of Home Affairs has lost a battle over blocking South African IDs arbitrarily after the South Gauteng High Court ordered the department to unblock the ID belonging to a Johannesburg man. Picture: Henk Kruger/African News Agency (ANA)
The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has lost another battle over blocking South African IDs arbitrarily after the South Gauteng High Court ordered the department to unblock the identity numbers belonging to a man residing in Eikenhoff, south of Johannesburg.
This was after Cornell Monyake urgently took the department to court after his ID was blocked.
The 42-year-old said it had affected his life as the banks suspended his accounts into which his salary was deposited.
The blocking of IDs began in May 2012 when the department started a campaign to address the issue of duplicate IDs on the National Population Register. What started as 29 000 identity documents having markers placed against them quickly escalated to over one million by 2020.
However, this was challenged by Lawyers for Human Rights who said no law allows this.
The lawyers, in September last year, also said the criteria behind the blocking of some of these IDs had become increasingly arbitrary.
The North Gauteng High Court then declared that the department’s practice of blocking IDs was an unjust and irregular administrative action that was inconsistent with the country’s Constitution.
In the case brought by Monyake on March 2, last year, the DHA was the first respondent and Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi was the second respondent.
DHA spokesperson Siya Qoza did not respond to questions sent on Tuesday.
Monyake told the court that after his bank accounts were closed, his children were unable to go to school because he could not access his salary.
“If this matter is not adjudicated on urgent court roll this will cause unrepairable harm to my children’s future and to me too as I stand the chance of losing my job, and my children will have to quit schooling,” said Monyake.
He said he received his ID book in May 2005 and has been using it for various transactions without experiencing any problems.
Monyake said he became aware that his ID had been blocked after he applied for a personal loan and was told that his ID had been blocked and he should enquire with the DHA.
He then visited the DHA offices but was told to bring his mother for the interview. Monyake said he hasn’t been able to trace his mother’s whereabouts for years, and he informed the DHA about it, but did not get any joy.
“I have tried several times to get even my uncle to go and witness or give evidence but no help still,” said Monyake, who added that he did not receive his salary on February 26.
He said when he asked his employer, he was told to check with his bank.
Monyake said the bank told him that all his accounts had been suspended until his ID book was sorted. He said this caused great frustration in his life.
On Mach 8, the court declared the blocking of his ID irrational and unconstitutional and ordered the department to unblock the ID.
Bishop Marothi Mashashane, representing the South African National Christian Forum (SANCF), who approached the court on behalf of Monyake, said the blocking effectively stripped affected individuals of their citizenship and dignity. He said many became ghosts in the system and were unable to obtain passports or driver's licenses, vote, open bank accounts or obtain marriage, birth or even death certificates.
“They are rendered undocumented and vulnerable to unlawful arrest and deportation. The Constitutional Court itself emphasised that ‘the systematic act of stripping millions of black South Africans of their citizenship was one of the most pernicious policies of the apartheid regime, which left many as foreigners in the land of their birth’,” he said.
Mashashane said the SANCF approached the court to order the DHA to ensure a just and fair process that was in line with the Constitution, and the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA) was applied in the case. He said what worried him the most was that only blacks were subjected to this “unlawful” ID blocking.