Cwele laments uncollected IDs ahead of voter registration push
Minister of Home Affairs Siyabonga Cwele says the department is sitting with more than 300 000 uncollected identity documents.
Cwele briefed the media in Pretoria on Sunday, and urged South Africans to collect their identity documents in order to be able to register and vote in the upcoming elections.
"Currently we have just got about 300 000 documents which lay uncollected in our offices. Most of them, about 70- 80% of these, were applied for in the year 2018.
“Most of the uncollected ID's are from Gauteng, KZN, Eastern Cape and Western Cape.”
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Gauteng sits with the largest amount of uncollected documents, with most of the backlog from Soweto and the north of Pretoria.
"The largest number of applicants was Gauteng, at 11 000 applied but only 5 000 collected,” the minister said.
"There are citizens who came to collect their ID’s, which we are very proud of, so that they can prepare themselves for the registration.
"This coming weekend is a big final push for the final registration for the general elections which will be held this year.”
Meanwhile, the ANC in Gauteng says it's important for the public to collect their ID documents to enable them to vote.
Deputy chairperson of the ANC in Gauteng, Panayaza Lesufi, says those without an ID won't be able to exercise their democratic right.
"Without an ID one will not only be unable to exercise their democratic right of voting in the elections, but this will have a negative impact in terms of accessing other government services.”