Last updated: 15 September 2026 · Blessing M Digital
Most South African CV templates tell you to put your ID number at the top. That advice is copied from template to template and almost nobody explains the risk that comes with it.
Should you put your ID number on your CV?
Generally no, not on the version you send out. A South African ID number plus your full name and date of birth is enough personal information to be useful to someone committing identity fraud, and a CV is a document you deliberately send to strangers. Provide it when an employer specifically asks, or once you reach the offer and vetting stage.
Why this matters more than it sounds. A CV is not a private document. You email it to recruiters you have never met, upload it to job boards, and hand it out at offices. Every copy is a copy you no longer control. Job adverts are also a known channel for fraud, so treat any request for identity documents before an interview with suspicion.
None of this means hiding who you are. It means matching what you disclose to the stage you are at. An employer who is genuinely going to hire you will ask for verification documents through a formal process, not through a job advert.
What to leave off
| Leave off | Why |
|---|---|
| Full ID number | Identity fraud exposure, and it does nothing to help you get shortlisted. Give it at vetting stage. |
| Full home address | Your suburb and city is enough for an employer judging commute. A street address on a widely shared document is unnecessary. |
| Photograph | Carries no searchable text, uses space that could carry evidence, and introduces bias some employers actively try to avoid. |
| Marital status, children, religion | Not relevant to whether you can do the job. |
| Date of birth | Optional. Combined with your name and ID number it completes a useful set for fraud. |
| Referees' phone numbers | Those are other people's personal details. Write "available on request" instead. |
| Salary expectations | Naming a number first usually costs you. Leave it for the conversation unless the advert demands it. |
| Skills rating bars | A row of dots contains no extractable text at all, so software reads nothing from it. |
| "References available on request" as the only reference content | Fine on the CV, but have the actual list prepared and warn your referees first. |
What to keep on
- Full name, as plain text at the top of the document body.
- Mobile number and email address, also plain text, not inside a header or a text box.
- Suburb and city. Employers do use location to judge whether the commute is realistic.
- Driver's licence and code, if the role involves driving or the advert asks.
- Nationality or work authorisation, briefly, if you are not a South African citizen. This answers a question the employer must ask anyway.
- Languages you speak, where relevant to the role.
Why contact details must not sit in the header
Many applicant tracking systems ignore the header and footer regions of a document when they extract text. If your phone number lives in the header, the system may store a candidate record with no way to contact you. Put contact details in the first lines of the document body instead. This is covered in more detail in ATS CVs in South Africa: what actually matters.
What about employment equity and B-BBEE?
Many South African applications ask for employment equity information. In most processes this is collected on a separate declaration form, not on the CV itself, and completing it is usually voluntary. If an advert or application form asks the question directly, answer it there. There is no need to volunteer it on the CV when nothing has asked for it.
This is a description of common practice, not legal advice. If you are unsure about a specific employer's process, ask that employer.
Common questions
My template has a photo box. Should I delete it?
Yes, unless you are applying for a role where appearance is genuinely part of the job, such as acting or modelling. Deleting it also removes a floating object that parsing software often cannot read around.
The online application form asks for my ID number. Is that different?
Yes. A form on an employer's own careers portal is a different situation from a document you email around. Fill it in there. The point is not to keep it secret forever, it is to stop broadcasting it on an attachment you cannot recall.
Will leaving things off make my CV look incomplete?
No. A recruiter is looking for evidence you can do the work. Nobody has ever been shortlisted because their marital status was listed.
Templates built to these rules
ATS-friendly CV template for South Africa is sixteen files as a once-off download. The CV designs put contact details as plain text in the document body, carry no photo box and no skills graphics, and include a separate references page so you never have to publish other people's phone numbers.
All six Word templates were checked at file level: zero tables, zero text boxes, zero images, zero multi-column sections, nothing in the header or footer.