Democratic Alliance MP and the party’s deputy spokeswoman on correctional services, Kabelo Kgobisa-Ngcaba, has called for Sim card registration rules to be tightened to clamp down on serious crime, including kidnapping and extortion.

Speaking to TechCentral on Wednesday, Kgobisa-Ngcaba said the Rica Act, which governs Sim card registration in South Africa, needs to be relooked, with new rules introduced – either through an amendment to the law or through regulation – to make it much more difficult for vendors to open and pre-register Sim cards on behalf of their clients.

This practice is widespread, as a previous investigation by TechCentral uncovered.

Kgobisa-Ngcaba’s comments come after police minister Senzo Mchunu – replying in writing to a question she posed to him in parliament – told her that 62% of extortion cases investigated by the police involved the use of unregistered Sims. She posed the question in her previous role as a member of the portfolio committee on justice & constitutional development.

The problem is that enforcement of Sim card registration rules is difficult, and the police do not have the manpower to “go from spaza shop to spaza shop” looking for breaches of Rica.

A solution, said Kgobisa-Ngcaba, is to mandate that the “flimsy” packaging used for Sim cards by the mobile operators be made of much thicker plastic that can only be opened with a pair of scissors — as was the case many years ago before the mobile operators moved to cheaper packaging. Such a move may help deter vendors from opening Sim card packaging but she conceded it would have to go hand in hand with a consumer education campaign into the security risks associated with buying opened and pre-registered Sims.

Costs

Though sturdier packaging could drive up the cost of new Sim cards, a slightly higher price shouldn’t impact consumers adversely, Kgobisa-Ngcaba said – and may in fact discourage consumers from recycling Sim cards. Telkom, for one, has said it produces 43 million Sim cards annually; MTN and Vodacom haven’t disclosed how many they distribute every year, though their figures are likely to be higher than Telkom’s number given their larger market share, suggesting hundreds of millions of Sims are produced each year for a country with a population of about 65 million people.

In a statement on Wednesday, Securi-Tech – a company that specialises in secure Sim card packaging and with whom Kgobisa-Ngcaba has previously worked (but with whom she is no longer associated) – said: “The Rica Act was established to ensure that all Sim cards are registered to their users, making it easier for law enforcement to trace criminal activity and protect law-abiding citizens. However, it appears that the implementation of this law is failing, with up to 60 million prepaid Sim cards being incorrectly registered each year.

Read: MTN launches biodegradable Sim cards

“Securi-Tech will be formally writing to the chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio committee on justice, Xola Nqola, to request a thorough examination of Rica’s enforcement and the loopholes allowing Sim cards to remain unregistered. The organisation also proposes the introduction of tamperproof packaging for Sim cards to prevent mass Sim card registration by third-party providers, a practice that currently undermines the effectiveness of Rica,” the company said.

“Many countries, including Nigeria, the UAE, the Philippines, Sweden and India, have implemented stricter measures to ensure proper Sim card registration. Some countries use biometric verification, which links Sim cards directly to a user’s physical identity, thereby reducing anonymity for criminals and improving law enforcement capabilities,” it added.

In his response to Kgobisa-Ngcaba’s question, police minister Mchunu claimed that although 62% of extortion cases involved the use of unregistered Sims, the figures for kidnapping, extortion, murder, robber and cash-in-transit attacks were all 0%.

Read: Apple sticks with physical Sims – for now

“That doesn’t make any sense,” she said, adding that she will submit a follow-up question to the minister seeking clarity. “I suspect they haven’t been collecting this data.”

Asked whether Sim card registration is something that can ever be effectively enforced, or whether it’s simply a nuisance for consumers, Kgobisa-Ngcaba said: “I really don’t think we’re barking up the wrong tree with this. I agree 100% that Rica is a nuisance, but it’s a nuisance you must tolerate if your objective is safety.” — © 2025 NewsCentral Media

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