Khoisan student becomes first to receive South African Smart ID with special characters

!Khūboab Oedasoua Lawrence holds his smart ID after a handover by Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber on Thursday, 26 February. Picture: Screenshot/x/@Leon_Schreib A young Khoisan man’s battle to have his identity recognised has finally come to an end after more than 18 years of struggle. For many years, IT limitations prevented !Khūboab Oedasoua Lawrence and his family from obtaining official documents that accurately reflected his name.

The system was unable to print his first name, ‘!Khūboab’, due to special characters (non-alphanumeric symbols and punctuation marks). Now, the student based in Stellenbosch, Western Cape, has become the first recipient of an enabling document recognising a Khoisan traditional name. Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber presented Lawrence with the first Smart ID card featuring special characters on 26 February, a milestone in the Khoisan community’s fight for rights and recognition.

Schreiber’s spokesperson Carli van Wyk said the minister was informed about Lawrence being unable to obtain a Smart ID reflecting his Khoisan first name a month ago. “According to reports, his family had the same problem over 18 years ago when they were similarly unable to obtain a birth certificate that accurately reflects the spelling of his first name,” Van Wyk said on Thursday “Following intervention from the minister, the department prioritised the matter and managed to identify the root of the problem as a technical IT limitation related to the use of so-called ‘special characters’.” In less than four weeks, the department implemented the necessary upgrades and resolved the limitation, Van Wyk said. As a result, birth certificates, Smart IDs and passports are now able to recognise and record Khoisan traditional names for the first time in South African history.