ID smart card nightmare for a Westenburg teenager
A mother from Westenburg says she is annoyed and frustrated with the department of home affairs after struggling for months to get her daughter's identification smart card.
POLOKWANE – A mother from Westenburg says she is annoyed and frustrated with the department of home affairs after struggling for months to get her daughter’s identification smart card.
Susan Mogorosi applied for her daughter, Melanie’s ID in February, and she still has not received it to date.
Melanie (18) is in gr. 12 and needs her ID to write her senior certificate examinations.
“When we applied, they explained that the department does not issue the green ID books anymore and that it’s an identification card, which applicants receive within two weeks. We applied on February 22 and when we hadn’t received anything after a month, I called the department to ask what the delay was. Apparently my daughter’s fingerprints were not clear and we had to redo them. What frustrates me is that the department did not notify us about this problem and we wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t called.”
She said the department had still not issued the ID card more than a month after they redid the fingerprints.
“Other people who applied with her in February have already received theirs. Why is my daughter’s taking so long? When I asked the department, they couldn’t give me a straight answer. All they said was that it was a new system and they also struggled at times to understand it?” Susan asked.
According to Susan, her daughter can also not send her university applications out, because she must attach a copy of her ID with her application.
By the time of going to print, the department had not given comment on the matter.
