Home affairs will not be destroying any uncollected IDs until after the local government elections, minister Malusi Gigaba said on Thursday.
This was to ensure that prospective voters could still collect their IDs, which had been gathering dust at various home affairs offices around the country.
Normally, if IDs are not collected within 12 months, they are destroyed.
He said they had relaxed their policy on the destruction of uncollected IDs until after the local government elections.
No date has been set yet for the elections.
Gigaba was briefing reporters on the governance and administration cluster’s plans post the state of the nation address.
The minister said home affairs was still sitting with around 200 000 uncollected smart ID cards at its headquarters, as well as 5 000 uncollected green bar coded documents.
This did not include the number of IDs uncollected at provincial offices, he said.
Gigaba urged South Africans who applied for documents to collect them.
There were a number of reasons why people might not collect their cards, he said.
These could include change of cities, or cell numbers, and some could still be using their green bar coded documents though they had already applied for the smart IDs.
He also raised concerns about the number of people who did not have any IDs at all, and were not registered at any government institutions.
These unregistered people were economic and security risks, he said.
In preparation for the local government elections, all home affairs offices would be open from 8am to 5pm during voter registration weekend, he said.
Voter registration will be held on 5 and 6 March countrywide.
