Ballito woman is married to herself!

A faulty marriage certificate issued by the home affairs department to Ballito’s Bess Morgan could see her daughter deported from England next week.
Bess applied for her unabridged marriage certificate at the Tongaat home affairs centre in August last year. However the one she was issued with last week was riddled with mistakes and even had her married to herself.
“There are so many mistakes, from the date and place of marriage to the fact that my ex-husband’s details were completely left out. They also had me married to myself, with the same ID number on both husband and wife’s details,” said Bess.
Bess wanted an unabridged marriage certificate for her marriage with her first husband, Peter George Clarke-Mcleod, for their daughter Kathryn Clarke-Mcleod.
Bess and Peter were married in 1981 and divorced soon after their daughter was born in 1986. Kathryn, who has been living in England for the past four years, needs her parents’ marriage certificate to apply for a visa extension so that she can eventually get a British passport.
“My father is from England and I also have a British passport. For Kathryn to get hers she needs to have lived in England for five years. If we cannot get this certificate sorted out she will be deported back to SA and lose the four years she has accumulated,” said Bess.
The family has been visiting home affairs every day since last Tuesday. They were initially promised an amended certificate soon but that is yet to happen.
Her daughter Kathryn is seriously concerned that the blunder will jeopardise her visa extention application in the UK.
“We were promised a solution within 24 hours but when my mother returned on Wednesday, the gentleman who made the promise was deemed unavailable for the foreseeable future. On Thursday my stepfather waited for almost four hours with no results. We have contacted their head office twice, and there is no record of any instruction to amend the certificate,” said Kathryn.
If Kathryn is deported to South Africa, she will not only lose her job but also the equivalent of    R25 000 that she spent moving to the UK.
Attempts to get comments from home affairs on whether the certificate would be available on Friday, January 24 in time for it to be couriered to Kathryn were unsuccessful.