afrol News, 23 March - Dead or alive! South Africans have been urged to call in to verify their alive status with the country's home affairs authorities in a campaign that kick-started today across the country.

The Alive Status Verification service will be provided through all mobile operators by text messages as well as through designated call centres across the provinces.

The government announced today that the Department of Home Affairs had activated the service to enable South Africans to check their status to ensure that they have not been fraudulently declared dead on the population register.

According to the government agency, this as part of the department's Track&Trace system for ID status verification - a self-help service, which makes it easier for citizens to interact with the department without visiting its offices.

The Alive Status Verification is the fourth self-help service run on the Department's Track&Trace system that can also be used to track ID books and passport applications and verify a persons' marriage status, the agency reported, adding that citizens can either use the department's website or SMS to verify their alive or deceased status.

Those with access to the internet can visit the department's website where they can mouse-click to get the shock of their life - pronounced dead or alive.

"They will be required to enter their ID number and press the verify button to see if they are 'alive' or 'deceased'," the department statement said.

The service campaign, launched ahead of the 22 April elections, has also promised to rectify, within weeks, any incorrect status given to people is they provide proof of their being alive, in case they were reported dead.

"In an event that a person is registered as 'deceased' when still alive, he or she must report to a local Home Affairs office with an affidavit, obtained from a police station, confirming that they are still alive," the department said.

The department said on submission of an affidavit as proof of their status, the complainant will be taken through form procedures as well as taking of fingerprints to investigate how such a person was declared "dead" on the system, with results expected to be given within a few weeks to the client on the outcome of its investigation.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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