Historic win for Khoisan names, home affairs accepts special characters on IDs and passports

For the first time in South African history, birth certificates, smart ID cards, and passports can now recognise and record Khoisan traditional names. The milestone was marked on Thursday when home affairs minister Leon Schreiber handed over the first smart ID produced by the department and the government printing works that reflects a Khoisan traditional name. The breakthrough follows recent upgrades to the department’s IT systems after a technical limitation prevented certain Khoisan names, particularly those containing special characters, from being processed.

The issue came to light when a first-year student at Stellenbosch University, !Khūboab Oedasoua Lawrence was unable to obtain a smart ID reflecting his Khoisan first name. For more than 18 years, he had been unable to secure a birth certificate that accurately reflected the spelling of his name. Schreiber said he recently became aware of the matter.

“A month ago, I became aware of a young man, !Khūboab Lawrence, who could not obtain a smart ID because the system could not accommodate his traditional Khoisan first name. We immediately moved to upgrade our internal systems, and today [Thursday] I handed over the first home affairs smart ID containing a traditional Khoisan name to him. “!Khūboab could not get an ID because outdated systems could not process all the characters used in his name.

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We immediately got to work on this long-overlooked injustice,” he said. After the minister’s intervention, the department prioritised the matter and identified the root cause as a technical IT limitation linked to so-called “special characters” used in Khoisan languages. “Just four weeks later, we have now enabled the use of traditional Khoisan names on birth certificates, smart IDs, and passports for the first time in South African history,” said Schreiber. Home Affairs has delivered a historic victory for the inclusion, equality and dignity of Khoi-San communities, as I today handed over the very first Smart ID containing a traditional Khoi-San name to !Khūboab Lawrence, a first-year student at Stellenbosch.A month ago, I found…pic.twitter.com/ncs6TSc0AN “This is how we are driving inclusion for all South Africans, including Khoi and San communities, and it demonstrates how our focus on digital transformation is delivering dignity for all.”

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