Question NW1416 to the Minister of Home Affairs
20 May 2022 - NW1416
van der Merwe, Ms LL to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
With reference to the devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal where, according to the President of the Republic, Mr M C Ramaphosa, approximately 40 000 people were displaced and thousands of people now find themselves without identity documents (IDs), what (a) are the full details of how his department intends to (i) assist the eputy Ministerpersons who have lost their IDs and (ii) fast-track their applications and (b) measures will be put in place to avoid possible fraud?
Reply:
(a)(i) People who have lost their IDs are already being helped. The Provincial Manager of Home Affairs in KZN has attended meetings of the Disaster Management Center since its inception. The Center provided him with a list of affected people/families. The Deputy Minister of Home Affairs led a campaign to trace such people, offer them identity documents and these are in two forms, (a) Temporary Identity Certificate (TIC) )which they get same time on the scene. (b) An application for a smart card which is issued after a week. All these are provided free of charge.
(ii) Yes their applications are fast tracked, because this is a special project.
(b) The people who have lost their documentation are already in the system, i.e the National Population Register (NPR), hence this whole exercise is a replacement exercise, where there is no chance of fraud.
END