A Limpopo mother, whose child did not have an ID number for the first year of his life due to Home Affairs bureaucracy, has been helped following SABC News coverage.
31 year old Thembi Maluleke of Ndhambi village, outside Giyani, first learnt that she shared her ID number with another person in November 2017.
Maluleke had just given birth and the sharing of the ID led to her child not being issued with an ID number. She then applied for duplicate ID rectification, and visited her local Home Affairs office numerous times until she was informed in November this year that her application was no longer being processed.
SABC News first visited Thembi Maluleke on the 8th of November 2018, a day that marked a year since she discovered that she shared her ID with another woman.
The 8th of November was also the first birthday of her son.
The little information that Maluleke knew of the other woman included that she stayed in Namakgale, and that she has two children.
Maluleke also learnt that the other woman had been granted a new ID number, following a duplicate ID rectification process, which automatically blocked the shared ID number.
Maluleke applied for her own rectification. Eight months after making the application, and submitting all supporting documents, she was informed that her application was no longer being processed.
Maluleke then called SABC News, and a day later, her rectification was also granted. Her son’s ID number was then issued a few weeks later.
“After the media had helped me on the 8th of November, on the 9th of November I found out that everything was sorted. My duplicate was corrected and everything was in order. So it seems to me as if the home affairs people know how to work these things but they choose not to do their work.”
Maluleke says she is disappointed that she has had to pressurise Home Affairs to get her challenge to be resolved.
“My heart is broken because there are a lot of people who don’t know how to find help. For myself I had to go to the media after a year of suffering. What about the other people who don’t know the platform of going to the media; and who doesn’t know where to be helped; who queue the lines of home affairs to be helped? For my side I have been helped by the media, you really did a great job but what about the other people.”
Home Affairs spokesperson Thabo Mokgola was not available to comment by the time of broadcast.
