MBOMBELA – “It’s better to commit suicide than to have sleepless nights as home affairs have buried me alive. I want my life back.
They created this mess, now they are reluctant to solve the problem and help me get on with my life.
Every time I visit the office, they keep on postponing, giving me new dates to come back and check my ID. Why do I have to suffer all these years?
” These were the complaints of one of the citizens who had been declared dead by home affairs in 2009, Mr David Gumede of kaNyamazane.
It is almost four months ago that Mpumalanga News published an article about two elderly people who were waiting for a positive response from the department after they were declared dead.
They had been in the dark ever since they discovered that they had apparently been buried, although very much alive.
Another citizen who was buried alive by the department, is Ms Margaret Ngomane who hailed from Zwelisha.
She told the newspaper she could no longer cope.
“When I visited the head office here in Mbombela, I thought they would bring back my life. I found out they had buried me alive in 1997 when I lost my ID in 2010.
It seems like it was a waste of time since I haven’t heard anything from them since July.
How long am I going to suffer? This is too much for me, I can’t take it any more.
It seems like they are playing games with me and keep on sending me from pillar to post,” said Ngomane.
She added that for the past six years she had been to the offices of home affairs in kaBokweni and White River before she decided to insist the Mbombela offices.
Her hopes were raised when the district manager of the department, Ms Doris Chiloane intervened and instructed the supervisors to start a new process, but so far all the efforts had not yielded positive results.
Speaking to Mpumalanga News Chiloane said,
“After I took over this matter, things started moving in a positive direction on the Gumede issue. I am communicating with our head office in Pretoria and keeping him updated.
“Regarding Ngomane’s matter, I spoke to her over the phone after the article was published.
I asked her to come to our office so that I could assist her, but she did not come. The last time she told me that she was trying to get money to come to the CBD.
All I can say is, she must come to our offices since our doors are always open,”
