THOHOYANDOU – When a resident of Hamutsha village, Mrs Azwinndini Magret Mulaudzi (37) went to apply for the birth certificate of her daughter, Rudzani, in the Johannesburg offices of the Department of Home Affairs in 2002, little did she know that she was going to uncover something that will not be easy for her to forget.

According to her, after she had given an official who was assisting her all her personal particulars, she was told that married women can only apply for their children’s birth certificates if accompanied by their husbands or else she must have her husband’s identity document.

“At first I thought the official was not talking to me until I realized that he was looking at my face,” she said. She said that she told the official that she was not married and appealed to him to double-check her identify document number.

According to her the official substantiated his argument by printing out a copy of her marriage certificate from the computer. The certificate shows that Mulaudzi was married to a certain Mr Hameed Ullah on December 17, 1999. Mulaudzi said that she told the official that she knew nothing about the civil marriage to Mr Ullah and that it was news to her.

She stated that the official advised her to go and make a sworn affidavit at the nearest police station to the effect that she knew nothing about the marriage. When she submitted the affidavit on another day, the official told her to be patient, saying cases of a similar nature normally take a little longer to finalize.

She said that the official told her that they would trace Mr Ullah first before effecting cancellation of her marriage. Two years went by and Mrs Mualudzi is still married to the man she has never seen. She said each time she made follow-ups at either the Johannesburg or Pretoria offices, she was told to be patient and they were still investigating the case.

The most problematic aspect is the fact that she is unable to apply for her daughter’s child support grant in the absence of a birth certificate. She said that, at one stage, she went to enquire from the Sibasa offices. Even there she was told to be patient.

“For how long must I wait?” she asked. The head of communications for the Department of Home Affairs, Mr Nkosana Sibuyi, revealed that Mrs Mulaudzi’s case was being investigated and that they were expecting to finalize it within the foreseeable future.