South Africans whose Identity Documents have been blocked by the Department of Home Affairs say they are as good as dead because their lives have virtually stopped as the can’t do anything without IDs.
The aggrieved South Africans then marched in protest to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to raise their plight for the second time in recent months.
Brian Gezani Baloyi, who represents an NGO called Aikhomaneni Ma- Afrika told Tshwane Talks he and his fellow members went to the Union Buildings on Tuesday to submit a second memorandum to President Cyril Ramaphosa with photocopies of their blocked IDs just like they did on 25 February 2025 but have not received any response from Ramaphosa.
He said they are directly asking Ramaphosa to personally intervene and help them to get their IDs unblocked.
He said all along he was using his ID until it was blocked in 2016 and told by the Department of Home Affairs that his original application for an ID had not been supported by his mother’s signature and for that reason it would be blocked.
“My mother is a citizen of this country; she used to work as a farm worker and she’s the one who raised me as a single parent, but my mother can’t write, so she can’t sign for me, and for that reason the Department of Home Affairs won’t issue me with an ID document,” lamented Baloyi.
Manager in the Presidential office Vincent Ngcobondwana holding copies of ID’s, police clearance of South African without ID photos and videos by Dimakatso Modipa
“Living without an ID has had a negative impact on my life and I am begging President Cyril Ramaphosa to help us get our IDs unblocked,” he said.
“We have clearance from the police indicating that we are not criminals, we have submitted proof of residence to show that we are bona fide South Africans, I own a house but I can’t pay for Municipal services because I am not employed due to lack of an ID,” enthused one of the men who also marched to the Union Buildings.
“We are down on our knees, we are begging you as a manager in the President’s office, as well as the Home Affairs Minister and the President himself to help us in our plight; we are submitting all the required documents to you and whatever document we have not submitted to you simply means we don’t have such a document,” he said as he handed documents of those whose IDs have been blocked to manager in the President’s office Vincent Ngcobondwana.
“I have five kids all in all and three of them have already passed Matric but can’t make any progress in life because they don’t have IDs, this as I personally don’t have an ID to help them get their own IDs,” lamented Mavis Chauke of Soshanguve.
“My children will end up indulging themselves in drugs because they can’t access any educational or job opportunities, but are idle at home due to lack of IDs,” explained Chauke.
“One day I found my first born child trying to hang herself because there is a tender project in the neighbourhood which requires young Matriculants but she can’t be employed there due to lack of an ID,” she said.
She revealed that her ID was blocked in 2009 and only realised this when she went to apply for birth certificates for her children, but was told that her ID falls under the category of an immigrant.
“Local residents negatively refer to me and my family as Makwerekwere because we don’t have IDs, and I must point out that a certain Home Affairs official took my ID after I failed to pay him R10 000 so that he can unblock my ID, and when I recently went to the Home Affairs offices I was informed by some officials there that my ID has been sold for R10 000 to some Zimbabwean foreigners,” she said.
Chauke revealed that she and her family frequent local dumping sites to get some food as they don’t have any income whatsoever to buy food for themselves.
She said her husband died in a car accident in 2007 and as she doesn’t have an ID, her children haven’t received any benefits accruing from the money left for them by their late father.
Manager in the Presidential office Ngcobondwana received the marchers’ memorandum and acknowledged that it was for the second time that the marchers were submitting a similar memorandum to the office of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ngcobondwana promised to take all the documents of the aggrieved marchers, including their petition to the Minister of Home Affairs and give him 14 days to respond.
He explained that President Ramaphosa acted upon the demands that the protestors had raised in their February memorandum, and subsequently asked the Minister of Home Affairs to explain why there is a crisis of blocked IDs, and what steps he was taking to address the said crisis.
According to allegations doing rounds in the country, Home Affairs officials are the ones who sell IDs of South Africans to illegal foreigners, proceed to block the said stolen IDs and when local South Africans want to unblock their IDs the selfsame Home Affairs officials demand money from them.
“We are as good as dead and we feel that politicians are using us to vote for them with the selfsame IDs during elections, but when we want to unblock the said IDs they don’t come to our rescue,” lamented one of the protesting marchers.
“This is heartbreaking and painful to see South Africans fighting to get what is rightfully theirs and as Soil of Africa we will intervene and help them and make sure they get what is rightfully theirs,” fumed Soil of Africa civic movements leader Bongani Ramontja.
The march was peaceful and the protestors displayed pain, heartbreak and sadness as some among them knelt on their knees in front of manager in the President’s office Vincent Ngcobondwana as he received their memorandum.
About 300 disgruntled South Africans who have been affected by the crisis of blocked IDs across all provinces took part in the march.