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Archiver > SOUTH-AFRICA > 2001-12 > 1007211190


From: "Scott Jung" <>
Subject: Reply...South African Family Research (ID numbers)
Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2001 06:53:10 -0600


Hi listers!
Just to add more info to the below.
The USA as stated as no deification number
however the drivers license is accepted as one
and they have the persons age, sex, height, good/bad driver [point system]
address and in some cases thumb print as in the case of California.
Others have strips like credit cards on the back that allow the Police to read the info.

The Social Security number is also used as an ID but one is under no obligation
to give it out as identification.
The first 3 numbers are the State they are issued in and the rest 215-00-0000
[this is Maryland] are issued as the numbers are available,
when a person dies their number is held in limbo for a considerable time and then is
reissued -so I am told, this has to be verified-
because #s begin to run out as the population explodes.

As a Green Card [it's blue] one can hold a job and eligible for a ss#.
One cannot get a job without this number and if you are an Alien you cannot work
thus opening the market for forgeries.
America is inundated with non documented Aliens working and if Companies hire
anyone without a number they are fined huge penalties for having done so.


----- Original Message -----
From: Semmelink
To:
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2001 12:06 PM
Subject: RE: South African Family Research (ID numbers)


The non-racial ID numbers were introduced in mid-1986 for non-Blacks
together with the bar-code.

The four digit serial numbers started with a "5" for males, not "6". (Mine
is 5004).

The last digit was a control code. As far as I know that was purely random
and had no hidden racial code. It was however still linked to a person's
old identity code for many years and officials could for many years still go
into their computers and get a person's racial classification. I was once
told that they got it because it was linked to the old number. The racial
classification system was still in use for many years after it disappeared
from the ID number.

The digit preceding it indicated a person's South African racial
classification. A zero indicated "White". This was replaced with an "8"
for White, Coloured and Asian in 1989. Black people only joined the
standard system a few years later.

The digit preceding that was the citizen indicator. "O" for a South African
citizen and "1" for a non-citizen. I'm not sure if there were any other
digits used for non-citizens.

I am still a bit surprised that no one has objected to the sex and age of a
person being recorded in the South African ID number. The USA does not have
an ID number system such as many other countries have. They have a Green
Card system for Aliens (which aliens have to carry around with them at all
times). Most Americans use their drivers licences for identification
purposes. The USA also have Social Security numbers but that does not have
a photo (or at least did not when I was there). The USA Social Security
number is a random number issued irrespective of sex as far as I know. Mine
does not indicate sex although they do seem to get bigger in time so do
indicate more or less when a person registered. It does not really indicate
my age because it only reflects more or less when I got it in the state I
went to the USA.

Adelbert
Heather's South African Genealogy Help List
http://www.genealogy.co.za
Cape Death Notice Index Project
http://www.e-family.co.za/


-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Hayes [mailto:]
Sent: Friday, 30 November 2001 12:11
To:
Subject: Re: South African Family Research

On 30 Nov 01, at 9:25, Brady wrote:

<knip>

> own. When were ID numbers introduced, anyway? My guess is sometime in the
> early 1950s because when I received my first green ID card at the age of
> 16, it was interesting to note that my father's, mother's & my numbers
> were consecutive. My mother says there was a census soon after my birth.
> My sister, who is five years younger than me, had a much later number. Of
> course, my ID number changed when I got my first ID book, & then some
> years later, the last three digits were changed -- quite disappointing,
> really. I kind of liked the old "007" ending!

ID Cards and numbers were first introduced in 1955/6, and they consisted
of nine digits followed by a letter, and were based on where people were
living at the time of the 1950 census, so people living in the same house
would have consecutive numbers.

They were introduced because of the Population Registration Act of 1950,
which was intended to establish everyone's racial group, so that apartheid
could be applied. It was followed by the Group Areas Act, and similar laws,
which reserved certain bits of land for certain groups, and the identity
cards
were needed to show which group they belonged to. So the letter at the
end would be W for white, C for coloured, and A for Asiatic. Blacks didn't
have identity cards, but at about the same time "Reference Books" were
introduced, which, in addition to the information on the cards, also had
information on where they worked, whether they had paid taxes, and
whether they were allowed to live in a particular place.

In 1970 or thereabouts, Connie Mulder introduced new Identity Books for
non-blacks, which were even bigger than the reference books blacks had to
carry. New, and longer, ID numbers were introduced, beginning with the
date of birth (6 digits) a four digit serial number (beginning with 0 for
females, and 6 for males), a two-digit racial classification, and a final
control digit.

These began to be issued from about 1972 onwards, and had vaccinations,
driving and firearm licences, records of voting, blood group, and various
other information.

They proved too complicated and expensive, and the driving licences were
too easily forged (they were just a stick-in slip), and eventually were
replaced by much smaller ones. The last three digits were changed - they
no longer indicate race group, but citizenship. South African citizens are
08.




Keep well,

Steve Hayes
Web: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/famhist1.htm
E-mail:

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