Edward Nyambi of Zanghoma village has been braving the long lines at the Tzaneen Home Affairs office after his ID was declined during the municipal election in 2021. “My ID was not accepted at the voting station, and when I asked what the problem was, they told me that it does not appear. They took my ID number and sent it to other voting stations, they all said the same thing,” Nyambi told the Herald. In mid-November 2021 his grandchild of whom he is the guardian wanted to use his ID to apply for a bursary. Again, the ID was declined.

“I tried to go to Home Affairs during the festive season in 2021, but it was so busy that I gave up and decided to return the next year,” he said. In January 2022, he embarked on a process to get his ID reinstated and was faced with multiple challenges, from getting a certificate to confirming that he is not dead, to proving he was born in South Africa. He was sent from office to office and had to submit the IDs of his parents and siblings, and letters from the headman and the school he attended.

“I asked them to provide me with some kind of ID to prove that I am indeed a South African citizen and am awaiting my ID card. They told me someone will visit me at home to confirm whether I am really a South African citizen, I did not argue with them, I just left,” he said. Nyambi said during 2022 he went back and forth to Home Affairs trying to get his ID card. In January this year, he returned to Home Affairs. “I was overjoyed when I was told that my ID number has been reinstated,” he said. On February 2 he wanted to apply for a loan. “When I presented my ID, they told me that it was blocked.

Also read: Rose still without ID after 7 years

I went back to Home Affairs, and they confirmed that it was blocked.” He was then given the phone number of the head of Home Affairs’ Mopani district. He called and was told that if he was in Tzaneen, he should go to Home Affairs immediately. On arriving at the office, he was directed to another floor where they were supposed to solve his problems. “I waited until 16:30 to be called. I then knocked on her door to tell them it was late, and my transport will not be available if I waited longer.” He was told to return the following day and ask for Nkuna.

The following day he repeated his story to Nkuna and again was asked to present all his documents. “They then told me that I should always be at home as officials will be visiting me to ask me a few questions. I have been waiting since February for the visit, but nothing has happened,” added Edward. “What happens when I die, what happens when I have to renew my social grant, I have another grandchild who is in matric of whom I am the guardian. I never had a passport and now they say I am not South African,” he concluded. Herald contacted the acting provincial manager of Home Affairs, Thifheli Matshaya. He undertook to investigate Nyambi’s case as well as that of Rose Ngobeni, a woman who is also struggling with her ID at Home Affairs on whom the Herald reported earlier.