HOME affairs has responded to the country’s outcry about the sudden price increase of identity and passport documents.
The department has confirmed that a second copy of an ID will cost R120 more after the tariff increase from R20.
“It is important to understand that the first issue of an ID is free of charge so the poor or any South African receives their ID free of charge,” said home affairs director general Mkuseli Apleni .
Apleni says the idea is to encourage South Africans to value their IDs, in the same way they would value their bank card, driver’s licence and other important documents.
Passports will cost R210 more because of additional security features which cost the department more to produce and to ensure that criminal elements are not able to reproduce them or use them for illegal activities at home or abroad.
“I feel robbed of an extra R200 by home affairs,” said medical biochemistry masters student Katlego Sojane.
He was one of the many people standing in the long queues last week Thursday to beat the price increase, but was unsuccessful.
“We feel that the amount of R400 is reasonable and the passport is now more valuable and secure,” said home affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.
Third year law student Dineo Phala says that the passport price is too high, especially if a passport expires every 10 years and can easily get stolen when travelling abroad.
Home affairs minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has admitted that people are also not very careful when they are capturing the data for passports and ID documents.
“I had a query when I was at the passport division – to do with an unabridged birth certificate and information not being captured correctly. On one ID the father’s first name was used rather than the surname which simply means that someone did not quality control this product before it was sent out,” says Dlamini-Zuma adding that this is an area the department needs to work on.
The director general also stated that the department has introduced forms in triplicate. “I get one, the other is left in the office and one goes to Head Office. So if you come to us sand say my name was spelt incorrectly we have proof of what was submitted.”
