Around 300,000 South African identity numbers are blocked. Of those affected, 59,000 people are registered to vote.
Unless the Department of Home Affairs unblocks their IDs, the 59,000 will not appear on the list of eligible voters for the 4 November elections.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) gave Parliament the figures on Friday, 9 October. He was briefing Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs.
“At the last information we received, there were around 300,000 blocked IDs,” said Masego Sheburi, the IEC’s Deputy Chief Electoral Officer for Electoral Operations.
“They were not blocked by the Electoral Commission but by the legal authority entrusted with identity in the Republic, the Department of Home Affairs. Of the 300,000 such blocked IDs, 59,000 were persons who had been registered on the voters’ roll,” he said.
The affected voters still appear on the IEC’s systems, but they are listed in the wrong section.
“They will appear not on the certified and therefore eligible portion of the voters’ roll. They will appear on the rejected segment of the voters’ roll,” Sheburi said.
The IEC cannot unblock the IDs itself.
“Only after that identity number is unblocked at the source, at the Department of Home Affairs, would the status on the voters’ roll be corrected. For as long as the ID number remains blocked at Home Affairs, that person will not be on the list of people entitled to participate in the elections,” he said.
Sheburi said an ID could be blocked following reports of identity theft or fraud. Home Affairs could also block an ID while checking whether it was lawfully issued or investigating doubts about whether the holder is South African.
He did not say whether any of the 59,000 IDs could still be unblocked in time for the elections.
The voters’ roll closed on 7 August, raising questions about whether the affected voters can still be reinstated.
A member of Parliament told the committee that the issue had been raised before, but no answer had been received.
“I think I asked this question previously, and I don’t think I received a response from the IEC and the department on the blocked IDs of registered voters,” the MP said.
Home Affairs is due to appear before the committee later on Friday.
In June, the department said it had unblocked 2,202,368 identity numbers. It had also urged people whose IDs were blocked before November 2022 to submit representations by 10 July.