Young graduate can’t get ID because Malawian mom is missing

A Gauteng young graduate’s life is in limbo as the department of home affairs reportedly rejects her application for an identity document (ID).

Sibongile Mwase, 24, a public relations graduate from Katlehong in Ekurhuleni, claimed that the struggle to convince the department to consider her application started a long time ago, when she was 15 years old.

Mwase said that after passing her Grade 12 with flying colours she went to a college where she completed a public relations diploma, but now her life is stuck as she does not have an ID.

No help from home affairs

“I have been trying to obtain an ID since I was a teenager until now. When I go to the home affairs offices I am told to bring my mother’s documents.

“I was born and grew up in Katlehong. My father is a fully documented South African while my mother is from Malawi.

“She left home during the xenophobic attacks in 2012 and since then we have never heard from her.

“The painful thing is that she did not leave any documentation behind. Every time I go to the home affairs offices, they tell me to bring her documents,” said Mwase.

ALSO READ: Schreiber forges ahead with initiative to deport undocumented foreigners

“The only documents serving as proof that I was born in the country are my primary and high school letters and a hospital card from Natalspruit Hospital where I was born. All this evidence is not being considered.

“Social workers advised me to talk to the lawyers dealing with human rights issues and they have promised to assist me.”

Mwase said her younger brother, who was only four years old when their mother disappeared, is also facing the same problem as the authorities are refusing to consider his birth certificate application.

She said the family visited the Alberton home affairs office and were told to go to Germiston, but they did not get any help there.

Home affairs spokesperson Siyabulela Qoza did not respond to questions sent to him on Monday, even though he read them.

Among millions undocumented in SA

Mwase and her young brother are among thousands of stateless people throughout the country who are facing a bleak future because they are not documented.

A stateless person is born in a particular country but does not have any documents showing that they are citizens of that country.

What makes her situation worse is the fact that South Africa is not one of the countries subscribing to the 1954 International Convention, which is an act that protects the rights of stateless people.

The convention establishes minimum standards of treatment for stateless people concerning their rights. These include, but are not limited to, the right to education, employment and housing.

ALSO READ: Home Affairs to intensify inspections at restaurants, farms for illegal employment

Importantly, the 1954 convention also guarantees stateless people a right to identity, travel documents and administrative assistance.”

Currently, there are no specific figures for stateless people in South Africa, but according to a Lawyers for Human Rights presentation made to the home affairs portfolio committee, there were over 15 million unregistered or undocumented people in South Africa, of which almost three million are under the age of 18.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees stated that at the end of 2022, an estimated 4.4 million people worldwide were either stateless or of undetermined nationality.