09 Nov 2021

More than 30 000 Omang cards have not been collected from the Department of Civil and National Registration (DCNR) office.

As at end of October, 30254 cards had been not collected an indication that the owners of the cards had no form of identification and therefore were unable to access certain services where an identity document was required.

Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs, Mr Motse Otlhabanye said this in an interview.

He urged the public to collect their cards because there was a risk of theft if the documents remained uncollected.

Mr Otlhababaye said the Department had come up with several initiatives to encourage the public to collect their cards, including informing them through short message systems (SMS).

The department also conducted outreach visits to distribute cards. It had also generated public notices to encourage collection, he said.

Mr Motse noted the department had established 14 temporary registration sites across the country to improve access to Omang services and address the backlog created by COVID-19 mitigation strategies.

“The exercise started in October and will continue until December. It has progressed well and people initially came in large numbers but those reduced as we progressed,” he said. Ends