Facing mountains to get an ID document
'They told me to come back after three months to collect the ID, but I was still to face a mountain'
LIFE for Mzikayise Nkwanyana (59) of Macekane Reserve has become a waiting game, hoping against hope that one day his ID document will finally be ready for collection at the Empangeni Home Affairs office.
Frustrated Nkwanyana says he went to the Home Affairs office more than 20 years ago to change his reference book to a green bar-coded ID book, but when this arrived, his year of birth was altered from 1957 to 1964.
‘In November 2014 I requested that the error be rectified. For this I was asked to pay a R70 fee and told the new ID book would be available in three months’ time..
‘After waiting for more than three months, I went back to Home Affairs but was informed it was not back yet.’
Nkwanyana says he then went to the Ngwelezana office, where he had to pay R140 for a re-application.
‘There they also told me to come back after three months to collect the ID, but I was still to face a mountain.
‘They told me to collect my ID at the Empangeni office. The ID was still missing in action and they asked me to bring my wife along as witness,’ Nkwanyana says.
He waited for progress for the whole of 2015, went back to Home Affairs in May this year and was told to bring along witnesses to confirm his age.
‘On Monday I went back and spoke to Manager Vusi Mjadu, who told me to be patient ‘because these things take too long to finalise’.’
Mjadu said the long list of applicants with similar cases was the cause of the delay.
‘The matter is out of our hands now. The backlog is at Home Affairs Head Office in Pretoria,’ Mjadu said.
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