Cape Town - Home Affairs Deputy Minister Fatima Chohan has urged parents to cultivate a "national culture" of getting identity documents (IDs) for their children when they turned sixteen.
On Saturday morning, Chohan met and interacted with a number of teenagers, who, along with their parents, queued up to collect their IDs at Athlone's Vanguard Mall outside Cape Town.
Issuing IDs to some of the children, she urged them to keep the documents safe as they were an important part of their lives.
She called on parents to ensure that their children had IDs when they reached the age sixteen. This, she said, would allow the children to register for matric examinations and apply for university studies among other benefits.
Xolani Ntuleni and Aphiwe Sijila both from Ned Doman High School in Athlone said that they were happy to have received their documents.
Ntuleni, 18, said that he had received a text message from the department informing him to come and collect his ID. He said that his school had also told them that the documents were out for collection.
Ntuleni said that having an ID made him "a good citizen" and would also enable him to write his matric examinations as well as obtaining a driver's license.
Sijila, 18, said that now he could vote as well as being able to pursue his dream of becoming a lawyer.
Chohan said that the ID campaign, which started two and a half years ago, had been "absolutely phenomenal".
The programme would be carried out throughout the country for the rest of 2012
