Grahamstown residents may find themselves having to wait a little longer than bigger centres to get their new identity smart cards.
Grahamstown residents may find themselves having to wait a little longer than bigger centres to get their new identity smart cards.
According to a statement released by the Home Affairs internal communication team, Grahamstown is not among the 27 regional offices that will launch the new cards.
Media liaison officer at Grahamstown Home Affairs, Thobani Ntlalo, said, "Residents should understand that we are a small District office and we haven't even received the machines that will produce the smart cards. We urge everyone to be patient as we will announce further details in due course."
Ntlalo said interest in the new cards, which boast high-tech encoding systems, is very high and an unusually high number of people come to their offices daily, hoping to apply for them.
The official national launch of the smart cards was yesterday, to coincide with former president Nelson Mandela's birthday. Among the first scheduled to get the cards were President Jacob Zuma, Deputy President Kgalema Montlante, former president Thabo Mbeki, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and some senior citizens.
Ntlalo said, "We are prioritising the Mandela Generation – those veterans in their 80s and 90s whom we wish to honour while they are with us in person and while they can reflect with us on the roles they played in opposing the various apartheid measures that denied South Africans their rightful place in our society."
Ntlalo said the Grahamstown office would soon announce its plans to deliver cards to the broader public and would start with young South Africans – especially first-time applicants for ID documents, as well as senior citizens.
Applicants would be invited to Home Affairs offices in stages, according to their dates of birth, in order to avoid congestion.
According to Minister Naledi Pandor's July 4 statement in Parliament, it will take six to eight years before all South Africans have smart ID cards.
Pandor urged members of the public to be patient and promised to expand the number of offices able to process applications for the ID smart card.
