Then the door chimed.
The guy rolled his eyes but pulled out a green, barcoded driver’s license. Thabo took it. He didn’t just look at the photo. He didn’t just feel the laminate. He picked up his phone, opened the Driver’s License Scanner SA app, and tapped the camera icon.
They left in a huddle, whispering. The door swung shut.
He held the phone over the barcode. The app’s red scanning line blinked once, twice. Then a green checkmark pulsed. But Thabo wasn’t looking at the checkmark. He was looking at the data that popped up.
The tall guy shifted his weight. “E-eish, my uncle helped me. At the licensing department. It’s legit.”
“You can leave the beer,” Thabo said. “And I’d recommend you don’t use that card to buy alcohol anywhere else. Next person might call the cops before you reach the door.”
Surname: Nkosi DOB: 2003-06-12 Status: VALID
The tall kid grabbed the license from the counter, face pale. “It’s not fake. The system must be wrong.”
“New system,” Thabo said flatly. “Natis-linked.”
Thabo locked his phone, wiped the counter, and waited for the next chime of the door. Somewhere in the system, a report was already being processed. And somewhere, a kid with a fake license was learning that in South Africa, the days of “voetsek, it’s fine” were over.