I'm a naturalised South African citizen, originally Irish. Ireland has no single ID document; South Africa does. What is peculiar to me is how South Africans are usually so unconcerned by our ID document.
One of the most resented and hated aspects of Grand Apartheid was the dompas, the pass book. It was an internal passport that had to be carried by all non-white people in South Africa. An early version affecting South Africans of Indian origin was the centre of early civil disobedience campaigns conducted by Mohandas Gandhi in Durban and Johannesburg. Later, the African National Congress and its allies organised the Defiance Campaign opposing the Apartheid government over the dompas and other laws. The Pan-Africanist Congress's organising motive for their fatal march on Sharpeville in 1960 was also a protest against the pass.
Today carrying the National ID book is not compulsory; and the same ID book is issued to all South Africans regardless of race. But even until quite recently the ID book indicated its owner's race.
If I decided not to carry my ID book, most useful services would be denied me. I could barely interact with state services. I could not vote. Most trade service providers, including banks, car hire, air carriers, so on, require my ID document. The government maintains a database of all ID books, of all the registrants, of all those people's physical addresses, and publishes this regularly in the national voters' roll, where anyone can find it.
It consistently amazes me that we South Africans don't learn any lesson from our history. Citizens of no country, besides perhaps those in Europe who have been oppressed by the Nazis, have a better idea than South Africans of the harm caused by state control of identity. Yet there is no protest or opposition to the National ID card. And now there is a plan to upgrade these to smart cards...
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One of the most resented and hated aspects of Grand Apartheid was the dompas, the pass book. It was an internal passport that had to be carried by all non-white people in South Africa. An early version affecting South Africans of Indian origin was the centre of early civil disobedience campaigns conducted by Mohandas Gandhi in Durban and Johannesburg. Later, the African National Congress and its allies organised the Defiance Campaign opposing the Apartheid government over the dompas and other laws. The Pan-Africanist Congress's organising motive for their fatal march on Sharpeville in 1960 was also a protest against the pass.
Today carrying the National ID book is not compulsory; and the same ID book is issued to all South Africans regardless of race. But even until quite recently the ID book indicated its owner's race.
If I decided not to carry my ID book, most useful services would be denied me. I could barely interact with state services. I could not vote. Most trade service providers, including banks, car hire, air carriers, so on, require my ID document. The government maintains a database of all ID books, of all the registrants, of all those people's physical addresses, and publishes this regularly in the national voters' roll, where anyone can find it.
It consistently amazes me that we South Africans don't learn any lesson from our history. Citizens of no country, besides perhaps those in Europe who have been oppressed by the Nazis, have a better idea than South Africans of the harm caused by state control of identity. Yet there is no protest or opposition to the National ID card. And now there is a plan to upgrade these to smart cards...