Home affairs department ruin people’s lives
The lives of two locals are being ruined by the failure of the Department of Home Affairs resolve their ID duplication problems.
The two have been sent from pillar to post regarding their identity documents for four years now.
Neshan Packery and Busisiwe Mahlangu had applied for IDs but were told they share numbers with other people, when they went to collect them.
In 2010, Packery (32) went to reapply for a document, but, when he went to collect it, he was told that it had been duplicated.
He has gone through the whole process of reapplying for an ID; he went to schools and hospitals to get documents and was interviewed about three times by immigration officials.
This person cannot find work, open a bank account or apply for a driver’s licence, and his life has been put on hold for the past four years.
He has a family to take care of.
Mahlangu (22) first applied for an ID in 2010 and, when she went to collect it, was also told that she shares her ID number and name with someone in Soshanguve.
She completed her matric in 2010 and can’t further her studies or find work due to this situation.
For the past four years both these persons have been told that their cases are being investigated, whenever they visit home affairs to enquire about the progress being made.
At first, they were told that the home affair’s investigation takes anything from six to 12 months, but it has now been four years.
The City Times forwarded an enquiry and made several follow-up calls to home affairs for several weeks, but no communication had been received at the time of going to print.
