A Masoyi woman, Gift Maphosa, will soon have an identity document (ID) confirming her gender as female.

This comes after Lowvelder reported that she had been issued an ID in August 2002, stating that she was male instead of female. Over the past 12 years, she has been to the Nelspruit Department of Home Affairs (DHA) many times to try to rectify the mistake, without success.

The operations manager at the DHA, Doris Chiloane, confirmed that they are in contact with Maphosa. “We have made contact with her after the matter was brought to our attention in the media, and she has submitted all the documents we had requested from her. The matter was taken to the home affairs head office to rectify the problem,” said Chiloane.

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She also said once the information has been finalised, she will immediately notify Maphosa. “We will keep in contact with her until the final stages.”

A grateful Maphosa said she is glad that something positive is now coming out after Lowvelder’s intervention. “I can confirm that I was called after my story was published in your paper and I was asked to resubmit all the necessary documents. I was later called in to go and sign some documents in an effort to assist me in rectifying the gender problem on my ID. However, I will only celebrate once I have the correct document in my possession. I am relieved that something positive is happening. I am just hoping for the best now.”

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Maphosa, who was 20 in 2002 when she received her ID, had not noticed the mistake on the document until 2012 when she tried to apply for a job. She has been struggling to have it corrected ever since. The now 42-year-old mother said her ID was complicating her child’s life, as she could not even be enrolled in school, despite both her mother’s clinic card and birth certificate stating she was, indeed, female, instead of what the faulty ID claimed.