South Africa plans to introduce gender-neutral identification

** The proposal is a gender-neutral ID number that does not highlight someone as male or female.**

LGBTQI community welcomes new proposed non gender marker.

"As the CGE, we are very excited about the proposal by the Department of Home Affairs. We

hope that Home Affairs will take the progressive step to include gender neutral across the board

for an opt system. So, you can opt into a particular gender recognition and marker whether male

or female. " explains Busiswe Deyi of the Commission for Gender Equality. 

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and or intersex community say this move by South

Africa is overdue. 

"South Africa has always been leader in that regard. Even when you look at the LGBTI rights in

the country, we have been pretty ahead of the curve most of the time."

Gender rights experts have highlighted that problems of not being unable to change a gender

marker bring out difficulties in activities such as opening a bank account.

"We have to ask why we need gender on our documents. What purpose does it really serve to

have a gender marker on your ID? So, part of the problem of not being able to change a gender

marker, as you can imagine, relates to opening a bank account, applying for job and just a whole

range of things like your drivers license. " , says Jabulani Pereira, Iranti Director

The Department of Home Affairs document on identity management states that South Africa

has an estimated five hundred and thirty thousand South Africans who identify as non-binary.