1. In terms of the Identification Act, 1997, (Act No.68 of 1997) all citizens and permanent residents shall have a unique identity number which shall not be shared with any other person. However the department has identified that there are persons who share identity numbers and those who have multiple identity numbers.
Duplicated identity numbers emanated from the amalgamation of homelands including Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei (TBVC) states. Prior to 1994, South Africa had different population registers with different enabling documents (e.g. birth certificates, reference books, book of life). The same applies to processes that were applied when taking fingerprints, coupling of identity numbers with reference number and safekeeping of records. After 1994, the department took a decision to centralize all fingerprints and other records from TBVC states in order to have one National Population Register and one Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS).
With reference to this question, different identity numbers registered for one person falls within the category of one person having multiple identity numbers, and may possibly have been caused by one of the following:
Accordingly, all those identity numbers which are associated with duplicate identity numbers will be cancelled and removed from the National Population Register.
2. The total number of multiple identity numbers on the department’s database is 155 679.
3. Cleaning up the database is a continuous process as and when citizens present themselves. Meanwhile, to stop further occurrences of duplication, the Department: