WeeklySA_AdminCONFUSION:Home Affairs promises to sort out the bungle that has left two families in despair…
By Frank Maponya
A Limpopo woman has been struggling to get an ID owing to an incorrect registration of birth by her mother.
Shereen Marakalala ,33, from Tenerif village in Ga-Matlala, west of Polokwane, has been sent from pillar to post trying to apply for the ID without success. The 33-year-old mother of two was turned back on several occasions when she went to apply at the Home Affairs offices in Mokopane. She even approached the provincial head offices in Polokwane to have the issue resolved but still could not get any help.
She thinks her troubles started after her mother, Mmakoena Marakalala, had assisted her sister’s child to apply for an ID document, leading confusion where the Home Affairs Department registered her niece as her own daughter. Now her own daughter cannot obtain an ID as a result of the bungle.
According to the woman, her mother had assisted her aunt’s daughter, who is of the same age as her, to apply for the document. And when it was time for her to go and apply for the document, Shereen was allegedly told that it was not possible for her mother to help another person, who is of the same age as the first one to apply for the document.
And because of the confusion, Shereen’s two kids (one in Grade 8 and the other in Grade R) cannot get birth certificates as a result of their mother’s challenge. She has been applying as early as 2009.
“I have been made to suffer trying to apply for an ID and I don’t know whether my problem will be resolved or not. And this is taking a toll on me because my kids are also suffering,” said Shereen.
“I’m in a desperate need of assistance because I have tried everything in my power to get the document since failure to get it means I would never get a job in my life,” she said.
She added her aunt had also accompanied her mother to the offices to confirm that the person who was previously assisted to apply for an ID was her daughter but still no help came forward.
“I don’t know how I will be able to come out of this situation because it’s adding stress on me and my kids. How can I be rejected on the basis that my cousin was assisted by my mother? And we do not share the same birth dates,” she added.
Albert Matsaung, Home Affairs provincial manager, said they would have to get the original mother of the one who has successfully applied for the ID.
“This will be done so that we can remove (the name of) the child who is under this mother where the child is unable to be registered in order to create space for this other child to be registered,” Matsaung explained. He said the sooner they received the ID numbers of the two mothers the better so that solve the matter.
