DURBAN: The SA First Forum has called on the Department of Home Affairs to urgently address the plight of South African citizens who remain without identity documents.

In a formal letter to the department, the forum raised concerns over what it describes as the continued failure to provide citizens with basic documentation needed to establish their identity and access services.

The organisation claims that about 4.4 million South Africans are currently without identity documents and is demanding that Home Affairs provide, within 14 days, the current number of affected citizens and the reasons they remain undocumented.

The forum also wants the department to provide a comprehensive plan within 14 days outlining how it intends to document the estimated 4.4 million people within 90 days.

According to the letter, the forum is particularly concerned that state resources are being directed towards the documentation, processing and administration of refugees and asylum seekers while South Africans remain without basic identity documents.

The organisation further wants Home Affairs to disclose the financial resources and expenditure incurred, or expected to be incurred, on the asylum and refugee programme.

The forum bases its demands partly on constitutional and legislative provisions, including Section 10 of the Constitution, which protects everyone’s inherent dignity, as well as provisions of the Births and Deaths Registration Act and the Identification Act.

It argues that the state has a statutory responsibility to facilitate the identification of people within the population register.

The forum says the continued failure to provide citizens with identity documentation “cannot be allowed to persist indefinitely”.

The demands come amid ongoing national debates over identity documentation, citizenship, immigration and the capacity of Home Affairs to process applications efficiently.

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