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By Siyabonga Mkhwanazi 
2h ago
Cape Town – Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi offered South Africans trapped abroad a one-way ticket home after their passports expired.
The minister also revealed that his department was sitting with 300,000 identity documents that had not been collected by the South Africans.
Motsoaledi’s decision on South Africans abroad comes after some opposition parties complained that the government needed to help people whose passports have expired.
But the minister said they cannot give passports to people trapped abroad because the rules of the International Civil Aviation Authority do not allow it, to avoid fraud.
He said the only solution was for the government to offer those South Africans a one-way ticket home through the emergency passport. He said that if people want to apply for passports abroad, it takes time, unlike when they do it here.
Motsoaledi said they had received complaints from individuals and MPs about people whose passports have expired.
“The rules governing passports are not the Internal Affairs rules,” he said, adding that the rules were governed by the International Civil Aviation Authority.
“According to their rules, the passport cannot be extended. If you are stuck abroad and want to come to South Africa, you are given a temporary one-way passport. We cannot, as some have requested, issue a passport. “
The minister appealed to the 300,000 South Africans to collect their identity documents at the Internal Affairs offices now that the restrictions have been relaxed. Motsoaledi also said that the Department of Basic Education had told them that there were more than 637,000 students who did not have identification.
Some would need the IDs for their matriculation exams.
Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Njabulo Nzuza said they were working with the Department of Basic Education to get students to request and obtain their IDs.
He said his program had so far helped ensure 62,000 students get their IDs.
“It is important that students spend their time in school and not in any other place. We cannot allow students to come to our offices to obtain their IDs, ”said Nzuza. She added that they address the students, using mobile units, to record them in their documents.
Political Bureau
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