Speaker 1: Seven notes and Current Affairs. All right, that's kicked us
Speaker 1: off on our current affairs feature. But let's speak about
Speaker 1: what we are covering first in our current Affairs this evening,
Speaker 1: and it's an important story that's been covered by ground Up.
Speaker 1: Did you know that your id could be blocked for
Speaker 1: whatever reason? Many reasons that Home Affairs has decided, and
Speaker 1: they have been protests being held of people whose ideas
Speaker 1: have been blocked. As a result, their lives have been
Speaker 1: brought to an abrupt pause, to a standstill, and they
Speaker 1: want that decision to be reversed. Ground Up has been
Speaker 1: looking at the story, covering not just the marches, but
Speaker 1: also this process by the Home Affairs Department. Silvas Via
Speaker 1: is a journalist at ground Up and he joins us
Speaker 1: in our lives. Good evening, Silver.
Speaker 2: Thanks Homo to hear, thanks for having me, and good
Speaker 2: evening to your listeners.
Speaker 1: Maybe let's just start with I mean, in your investigation,
Speaker 1: are you able to establish why the Home Office Department
Speaker 1: embarks under blocking of certain people's ideas?
Speaker 2: One of Firs has been in the process of blocking
Speaker 2: a number of ideas for a number of years, from
Speaker 2: the nineties and the two thousands has been doing that,
Speaker 2: and they've been saying that they are looking at the
Speaker 2: facts that some of them could be used as duplicates
Speaker 2: one person during the same id others could be stolen
Speaker 2: and be used by other people, and some people married
Speaker 2: to other people that are not even aware of so,
Speaker 2: and this could lead to a lot of scams and
Speaker 2: things like that. So this way, we're being investigated for
Speaker 2: this number of reasons. So this is the reason that
Speaker 2: they're taken so long to actually get these people to
Speaker 2: get their ideas being blogged.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but the thing is that it seems Home Affairs
Speaker 1: has been doing this without informing people. In fact, some
Speaker 1: people will just be going about their lives and you
Speaker 1: try to open a bank accounts or use your idea
Speaker 1: for something, and you notified that it's invalid.
Speaker 2: He is a number of people have been complaining about that, actually,
Speaker 2: saying that most of the times they've been thinking everything
Speaker 2: is normal until maybe they wanted to open a bank
Speaker 2: account like you said, or change up bring their green
Speaker 2: back cowarded IDA old ones and only to find out
Speaker 2: that not no longer allowed to register the new smart
Speaker 2: card ideas. And this has brought so much pain to
Speaker 2: them their lives. They have been have been not moving
Speaker 2: for a number of years now. Spoke to some of
Speaker 2: the affected people across the country where the march, so
Speaker 2: they're all saying the same thing, that they can move
Speaker 2: forward to their lives. They can't find employment. Some children
Speaker 2: they can't even access education, higher education when they need
Speaker 2: to register the universities. Some they can't even register their companies.
Speaker 2: So it's a situation where they only rely on informal
Speaker 2: kind of employment. So, yeah, that there has been the situation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think the problem here isn't that it's
Speaker 1: you know, your eyea has been blocked and you must
Speaker 1: just go get it unblocked. It's the fact that the
Speaker 1: process of getting it unblocked is a literal nightmare.
Speaker 2: No, yes, there is a nightmare. Some are saying that
Speaker 2: they've been doing it for a number of years, more
Speaker 2: than five ten years. One gentleman mentioned his name was
Speaker 2: He mentioned that since ninety eight his idea has been
Speaker 2: blocked and he was even deported out of the country.
Speaker 2: And then he had amberg because I mean, he says
Speaker 2: he's from here and Daviding, so the way he had
Speaker 2: no business going away from the country. And then after
Speaker 2: that he tried to get the document and there has
Speaker 2: been stumbling block, and then this led to a number
Speaker 2: of court cases, then Praetorda where civic organizations tried to
Speaker 2: open the case actually and took the Department of from
Speaker 2: A First to court try to find remedies for this.
Speaker 2: And then the court rules in the last Dingy generary
Speaker 2: that is going to give twelve months to the Department
Speaker 2: of from A First to unblock these ideas. But the
Speaker 2: response from the Department that has been saying that it
Speaker 2: takes time. They need to make sure that they follow
Speaker 2: the right process. They don't want to unblock the wrong documents.
Speaker 2: At the time when it went to court, the number
Speaker 2: was sitting at around seven hundred thousands of people who
Speaker 2: were where the ID documents blocked.
Speaker 1: And how many of them you don't have been successful
Speaker 1: in getting it unblocked? Is it many?
Speaker 2: Yes? At the time the Department said the total number
Speaker 2: was one point eight a million, so around in military
Speaker 2: was sitting at seven hundred thousand. It was taken to court,
Speaker 2: so it looks like there's some movements, but seven number
Speaker 2: is still a big number that affects a lot of
Speaker 2: people because cern undred is only those who are directly
Speaker 2: affected and the children if you find the number is
Speaker 2: quite higher.
Speaker 1: And what are some of the results and the effects
Speaker 1: of having a blocked idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like I said, you find people are struggling to
Speaker 2: get even grants, those three hundred and fifty grants those
Speaker 2: who are unemployed. And because we know a sut Africa
Speaker 2: is higher employment rate, millions of people are alying on
Speaker 2: those grants, but they find they can't even access them.
Speaker 2: Some they don't even get an opportunity to put treat
Speaker 2: the food in the university because of this. So it's
Speaker 2: quite a number of reasons. Some that even when they
Speaker 2: try to access health facilities unable to because they're being
Speaker 2: told we don't know you, who are you. Some of
Speaker 2: they were even sent back to their primary schools to
Speaker 2: prove that indeed they are sort Afflican cities and so
Speaker 2: they did that, followed all those processes because the way
Speaker 2: they're spirit get the documents unblocked, but still years late,
Speaker 2: they remain with no idea that they can use.
Speaker 1: And what has been the response from home a SAE.
Speaker 1: I mean, it seems as though they've been and tell
Speaker 1: me if I'm reading this wrong, but it seems as
Speaker 1: though that officials have been rather lax in speeding the
Speaker 1: process up, particularly for people whose lives are being affected
Speaker 1: so severely.
Speaker 2: Yes, the process has been slow. I mean this is
Speaker 2: why a lot of people are crying and complaining about that.
Speaker 2: Why is it taking so long? I mean during the
Speaker 2: match somewhere even saying that we're giving them seventy two
Speaker 2: hours to rectify this because all life has been spent still,
Speaker 2: but the department only said they were responding seven days
Speaker 2: give them a proper report. But going back to a
Speaker 2: doctoral mutuality was the Minister form Affairs. They did say
Speaker 2: that there are a number of issues that people are
Speaker 2: being aware of, issues like Namibia or as part of
Speaker 2: South Africa during our path day, so there's still a
Speaker 2: number of people from that country who has still benefiting
Speaker 2: from South Africa and terms of saving a sort of
Speaker 2: can citizenship. At that time you said the number was
Speaker 2: about seven thousand, so they needed to transfer that kind
Speaker 2: of transfer the citizenship to totally for under Namibia. So
Speaker 2: it was some of the issues that they highlighted at
Speaker 2: the time. But they're saying that they will go and
Speaker 2: need but people are saying that there's been too long.
Speaker 2: They need to get their lives, they go one track and.
Speaker 1: Tell me if I'm wrong Silver, But you know, I'd
Speaker 1: imagine that when this happens to people and they need
Speaker 1: to live life as you say, they need to register
Speaker 1: for university, register for school, be able to write the
Speaker 1: metric exams, get a bank account. Some find themselves or
Speaker 1: end up resorting to you know, dodgy ways in order
Speaker 1: to sort this up. You know, have your investigations revealed
Speaker 1: any any people that have ended up, you know, going
Speaker 1: the route of bribery in order to sort their papers out.
Speaker 2: He is there were allegations of that nature, saying some
Speaker 2: they paid around sixty five thousand from correct in terms
Speaker 2: of number around that figure to get those IDs and
Speaker 2: to get them to keep quiet so that they don't
Speaker 2: make noise anymore. So it was allegations. It's not something
Speaker 2: that we're able to prove, so it will take it
Speaker 2: as an allegation that is opening. But knowing that corruption is
Speaker 2: strife in that department, you can never rule that out
Speaker 2: because anything is possible.
Speaker 1: And according to your article, so that how the High
Speaker 1: Court declared it unconstitutional for the department to block IDs
Speaker 1: without notice. What does that mean? Does that mean that
Speaker 1: well block ideas without notice. I should say that does
Speaker 1: that mean homo fakes can continue to block, but they
Speaker 1: must inform everyone.
Speaker 2: So to tow us unconstitution to block at all. So
Speaker 2: but if there's a situation where they're investigating, at least
Speaker 2: they must inform them. But in this case many say
Speaker 2: they were never informed. This led to this frustration or
Speaker 2: surprise when they find out that the ideas were blocked.
Speaker 2: So this is what we're complaining about. And also the
Speaker 2: affects that children, they can't register the birth of their children.
Speaker 2: But the court that at the times said that if
Speaker 2: any it's under investigation, the children shouldn't be affected at list,
Speaker 2: should be given citizenship or permanent residence and also get
Speaker 2: the ID numbers while their partents documents are still being investigated.
Speaker 2: So but this was never followed. So that's why the
Speaker 2: court rule this was unlawful.
Speaker 1: And from the people that you spoke to, particularly at
Speaker 1: the march, I mean, I know that the perception oftentimes
Speaker 1: is with instances like this, you know, many of the
Speaker 1: people that are struggling are foreign nationals who are tried,
Speaker 1: who you know, have had ideas that were illegally awarded.
Speaker 1: But the people that you spoke to. Were maybe foreign
Speaker 1: nationals or was it a lot of South Africans or
Speaker 1: was it a mix.
Speaker 2: From what I've picked up, some are locals, but some
Speaker 2: are foreign nationals, but all saying that they are locals.
Speaker 2: So it's ways maybe Department of Form Affairs can ever
Speaker 2: elect to stand on. But there's something that they need
Speaker 2: to clarify and be transparent about these kind of investigations
Speaker 2: because some I believe majority of them are locals who
Speaker 2: are being affected for no reason.
Speaker 1: And it is the Department of Home Affairs saying they
Speaker 1: are going to be addressing this as app.
Speaker 2: That's what they're saying. But the way it looks, the
Speaker 2: numbers still high, so it will take a little bit
Speaker 2: of time before it can be resolved.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was about to ask do they say when?
Speaker 2: Yes, at the didn't give time when will they finish
Speaker 2: this process, but they could get them helved months which
Speaker 2: ended ality around February, So yes, they're already behind the schedule.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you so much for the story. Service.
Speaker 1: Be a