Forced Smart Card fee is anti-poor

During a recent Home Affairs Portfolio Committee, Department of Home Affairs Director-General, Mkuseli Apleni, confirmed that all South Africans will now have to pay R140 for their first Smart ID card and not just replacements as previously stated by Minister Pandor and the Department’s communications. For millions of South African’s R140 is literally the difference between survival and starvation, and the new Smart ID Card price poses a serious threat to their financial security. In Parliament I requested Minister Pandor to provide clarity on the payment of fees. In the Minister’s reply she confirmed that everyone will be expected to pay the fee except for all persons on the SASSA database and all 16 year old who are first-time applicants. The Minister advised that as Smart Cards are to be rolled out in the next 4 to 6 years, poor people will have the time to save for the fee. Imposing a new ID system on South Africa’s citizens and then forcing them to pay for it effectively puts a price on citizenship that not everyone can afford, and would exclude them from electoral and social security processes once the Green Barcoded IDs are phased out. The Minister has clearly demonstrated exactly how arrogant and out-of-touch she really is. When a person is poor and his/her priority is to put food in their stomachs, an ID fee will not feature high on the person’s list of priorities. We will continue to fight so that poor people are exempt from paying a fee for the new Smart card IDs.