Carol’s Column

New ID Books

When people make you laugh, you should be grateful and this whole voter registration show is humour at its very best.

I hadn't looked at my old blue-covered identity document for a long time and had forgotten its innards contained all the intimate details of my life.

For instance, my marriage certificate with three further pages for new marriage certificates to be inserted should I change husbands on a regular basis. Thoughtful that.

There were five pages of medical information specifying diseases and disorders, my driving licence plus three more driving licence pages. How many driving licences can one person acquire? Then four pages for firearms licences, numerous pages "for official use" and finally, voter registration pages.

My kid's identity documents issued in the 80's, smaller versions with green covers, were more interesting.

In them two pages were devoted to the 'Explanation of Identity Number' - in English and Afrikaans.

The explanation was spelt out number by number: 'The identity number consisting of 13 digits and appearing on page 1 of the identity document is made up as follows:

(a) The first six digits represent the date of the birth of the holder ... If the 7th to 10th digits are 0001 to 4999 the holder is a female person, and if they are above 5000 a male person is indicated ...

(b) The third group of digits (the 11th and 12th) indicates the person's citizenship and population group as follows:

White SA citizen 00, white non SA citizen 10, Cape Coloured SA citizen 01, Cape Coloured but a non-SA citizen 11, Malay SA citizen 02, a Malay non-SA citizen 12, Griqua SA citizen 03, a Griqua non-SA citizen 13, Chinese SA citizen 14, Chinese non-SA citizen 14, Indian SA citizen 05, Indian non-SA citizen 15, SA Other Asian 06, Other Asian non-SA citizen 16 and an Other Coloured SA citizen (perhaps green, purple, blue) was 07, while a non-SA citizen called Other Coloured (possibly lilac, puce or indigo) would be 17.

Finally, there was

(c) The last digit (the 13th) is a control digit forming part of the number.'

Truly, I kid you not. This information can be found on Page 10 of the previous small green but barcodeless identity documents. I tried in vain to find out what a controlling digit was. An official of the present department of Home Affairs suggested: "Today we regard Mango Buthelezi to be a controlling digit."

I thought that astute.

Which brings me to the new barcoded thumb-printed identity document. I laid bets with friends that it wouldn't be in all 11 official languages. Officialdom would surely pick just one.

Well, it is not in all official languages, just two, and they're familiar - English and Afrikaans.

The same size as the previous small green ID book, it has fewer pages. Everything has been shortened but there are still three pages for registering gun licences. Good news for those who participate in the national pastime of guntoting with a little killing here and there thrown in.

Meanwhile, my barcoded ID book arrived in the post three months after I'd applied for it and a week before the present voter registration after I'd visited Home Affairs 11 times to fetch it. My husband's hasn't appeared so he's moved into the Home Affairs office permanently and is camping in front of the counter. He's taken along a portable TV so that he can watch the cricket.

Last time I saw him, he was surrounded by 789 other aspiring voters waiting for their barcoded ID books.

Yesterday night when I took him a food parcel, he said he thought it wouldn't be long now. "Just another month or so. They're moving really quickly now," he muttered.

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