Thousands of South African citizens whose Identity Documents have been blocked by the Department of Home Affairs for various reasons marched in protest to the department’s headquarters in Tshwane on Thursday to hand in an emphatic memorandum of grievances.
Marching under the banner of Soil of Africa civic movement and led by the movement’s Bongani Ramontja, the marchers made it clear that unprecedented radical action will follow suit should the Department of Home Affairs fail to meet their demands.
Their battle cry is: “We are not beggars, we are not criminals, we are citizens.”
The threatened action entails the following:
1.Daily pickets at all regional and national offices of the Department of Home Affairs.
2.Public exposure of systemic Home Affairs failure through media briefings and digital platforms.
3.Class action litigation to secure justice for every affected individual.
4.National mobilisation under Section 17 of the Constitution to demand action from the people’s government.
5.Initiation of proceedings in the High Court against the Department of Home Affairs for contempt of court because the 2019 court ruling against it is still binding and failure by the Department to act as per the order of the court is not only morally reprehensible but judicially unlawful.
Their demands are as follows:
1.Immediate and unconditional unblocking of all affected Identity Documents.
2.Dismissal and disciplinary action against all officials involved in the systemic denial of identity to South Africans.
3.Compensation for all victims and their families.
4.Full criminal prosecution of all individuals implicated in corruption, bribery or abuse of power at the Department of Home Affairs. 5.Institutional reform within the Department of Home Affairs which must include
5.1 The establishment of an independent oversight body with direct community representation.
5.2 A public audit of all blocked IDs and citizenship status decisions made since 2007.
5.3 A clear and published criteria for blocking IDs coupled with transparent appeal mechanisms.
The preamble of their memorandum partly reads as follows:
“We write to you not with deference borne of hierarchy, but with the full authority of our collective dignity as South African citizens; people who have tasted bitterness of erasure at the hands of the very state that was supposed to affirm their existence.”
Home Affairs Head of Communications Paseka Mokhethea told the aggrieved marchers that the issue of blocked ideas has been ventilated in court and that Home Affairs was busy complying with the court order to sort out the matter.
He apologised for the absence of the Department’s Minister Dr Leon Schreiber who is in Cape Town attending to Parliamentary duties.
Be that as it may, he assured the marchers that their grievances would be responded to within the stipulated 7 days while pointing out that it must be borne in mind that solving the issue of blocked Identity Documents is a long process whereby careful verification measures have to be undertaken.
The memorandum was received and signed by Home Affairs Head of Security and Counter Corruption Simon Ratau.
Copy of Memorandum: