A total of 588 identity documents have been seized from a roof of a house in Lenasia, south of Johannesburg, Gauteng police said on Tuesday.
"At about 10 am on Monday, police received information that a suspect wanted for attempted murder was in a certain house in Lenasia," said provincial police chief Brigadier Govindsamy Mariemuthoo.
"Police went to the house and arrested the man,"
Upon searching the house, police found 588 ID documents in a bag, and arrested two other men at the house at the time.
The department of home affairs director general Mkuseli Apleni said his department would launch its own investigation into how the documents landed in the wrong hands.
"We join the government and the people of our country, in congratulating members of the police on the arrest of suspects found in illegal possession of 588 ID's," Apleni said in a statement prepared for delivery at a his department's media briefing in Pretoria on Tuesday.
The theft of identity documents, he said, was a serious matter since most criminals used the documents for "nefarious activities at home and abroad."
Apleni said the theft of identity documents posed a "serious security threat" to the country as they are used to by people to enter the country illegally and that it would also create a negative image of the country abroad.
"We are determined as government to ensure the people of our country are, and feel, safe."
He said the arrests were a sign that law enforcement agencies had the will and capacity to deal with identity document theft and corruption.
"The arrests once more underline our conviction that working together with our law enforcement agencies, we can make serious inroads in our fight against crime and corruption." - Sapa