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Home Affairs promises ID today
By Cedric Mboyisa
JOHANNESBURG – Jaffie Alberto’s seven-year wait for his identity document is about to have a happy ending, thanks to the intervention by The Citizen.
Home Affairs Minister spokesman Cleo Mosana assured this newspaper yesterday that Alberto’s ID would be delivered to his residential address today.
“The ID was issued on December 14. All we have to do is to dispatch it to him. It was a case of miscommunication,” said Mosana.
This swift reaction comes after we ran the story of the 69-year-old Alberto’s frustration over not having received his ID since he made his first application in 1999.
President Thabo Mbeki’s office e-mailed The Citizen concerning the matter. “You are kindly asked to provide my office with the contact details of Mr Alberto, so that we can try to assist him as a matter of urgency,” read an e-mail from The Presidency’s ministerial liaison officer Samson Phakwago.
Alberto was elated about the latest development, “Once I have the ID in my hand, I will jump for joy. I can have a pleasant Christmas this year.”
He said the Home Affairs representative (Mosana) who had telephoned him yesterday had minded her Ps and Qs. “She was polite... she went as far as wishing me a prosperous new year,” he said.
Mosana said the office of Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula had not received the complaint letter that humanitarian Fred Collins, on behalf of Alberto, had apparently written.
“We have not seen it,” she said.
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