Dad fights for SEVEN YEARS to get birth certificates

For seven years, Patrick Makaringe faced endless struggles to obtain birth certificates for his three children from Home Affairs in Kempton Park.

Patrick’s eldest child is 14 and his two youngest are 10-year-old twins.

He told the Kempton Express that over the last seven years, he spent over R10 000 complying with requests from Home Affairs for DNA tests and travel costs to his home in Mpumalanga.

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Patrick moved from Mpumalanga to Thembisa in search of a better life.

It was in Thembisa where he met the mother of his children, a young woman from Zimbabwe.

“I was told because I was not married to the mother of my children, none of my children would be issued with birth certificates.”

An emotional Patrick said when he started the process to get birth certificates for his children, he was told by officials he would need DNA tests for all his children.

“I did the tests in 2018 and submitted the results to Home Affairs and was told to wait for someone to contact me,” said Patrick.

After the Covid-19 pandemic, he still had not heard from officials at the Kempton Park offices.

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“I went to the offices monthly to get the certificates and even approached attorneys for assistance.”

Patrick said when his attorneys contacted management at the Kempton Park Home Affairs offices he was told to attend an interview in Springs.

He was then told to revisit the Kempton Park offices, two weeks after the meeting.

“When I returned, I was told to go home and wait for a call from the offices. Nothing came from the meeting and my attorney submitted a letter to the public protector but again nothing came from it.”

Patrick said after not hearing anything from the department, he visited the department’s head office in Pretoria.
“After this, I was told the process was taking long because my ID was under investigation.”

He added six years into the process, he received a document instructing him to submit further supporting documents, including a letter from the primary and high schools he attended and from the hospital where he was born.

“Because both of my parents didn’t sign my birth certificate, I was told I needed to do another DNA test with one of my parents.”

After the DNA test was submitted to Home Affairs, they transferred Patrick’s case to an immigration officer.

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“The officer was rude and started swearing at me. I then tried to give the results of the DNA tests to management at the Kempton Park offices, but they turned me away and told me to hand everything to the immigration officer.

“When I eventually submitted the results to the immigration officer, who told me to wait for a call.”

Patrick added a female employee at the Kempton Park offices accused him of having an attitude while another said it was not his fault he chose to have children with a foreigner.

“She called the mother of my children derogatory names.”

Five weeks ago, Patrick revisited the offices of Kempton Park Home Affairs.

“The immigration officer told me he couldn’t assist me because he was on his way to an operation.

“The officer also told me that next time I should come with money, but when I asked what the money was for, I could not get a straight answer,” said Patrick.

The Kempton Express sent an inquiry for comment to the Department of Home Affairs on September 5.

On September 6, Patrick called the offices of the Kempton Express to inform the newsroom he received a call from the Kempton Park Home Affairs office letting him know his children’s birth certificates would be ready for collection on September 12.

The Department of Home Affairs minister spokesperson Duwayne Esau responded to Kempton Express’ inquiry on September 11.

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“This case has been finalised by the provincial and office managers.

“This late registration of birth case was finalised last week after all the application requirements were met,” he said.

Esau failed to respond to other questions posed by the Express including that the same immigration official at Kempton Park Home Affairs identified by Patrick, was previously identified by another complainant after he allegedly requested a payment of R4 000 for documents.

Last week, Patrick accompanied by family members finally collected the birth certificates for his three children.

“I am so happy I cannot believe it is finally over. I am so relieved that my children have birth certificates like other children.

“I am grateful to the Express for assisting me. I hope the newspaper continues helping the community,” he said.