KHUBVI – Muofhe Magabani has lost hope with the Department of Home Affairs and she has turned to Mirror for help.

“I have seen many community members getting assistance through Mirror and I believe this is my time for assistance. My only hope is Mirror because my problem is taking so many years to be solved.”

Muofhe says she has been battling with Home Affairs to change her mistaken ID book but she has not been successful since 1997.

“I was born in 1945, but my incorrect ID shows that my year of birth is 1948. I went to Home Affairs at Makwarela several times, but the mistake was never rectified. I can’t understand why I should suffer so much because of someone else’s mistake. This problem has gone too far and I need it to be solved once and for all.”

Muofhe says she was requested to submit several documents to back up her new application, but every attempt has been fruitless. “On 28 April, I went there (Makwarela) with an affidavit from the police, a letter from my headman and a school register. They said they were processing my application. I went there again after two months, to enquire about my application and I was told that my application was unsuccessful because I did not bring along the Tshidzulapo document. I told them that my Tshidzulapo was washed away during the 2000 floods but they promised to go further with my application. I have gone there many times, but I am now without hope because I have not received my new ID. I am not sure if I will ever get the ID because nothing indicates that I will ever receive acceptable treatment.”

Sickly and unemployed Muofhe said she no longer has money to travel to Makwarela Home Affairs because her plea always falls on deaf ears. “I’m tired and fed up now. How can they do it to a poor and sickly community member like me? Where is the better life the government is always preaching about? This thing has turned my life around and I am no longer enjoying life like other South Africans...”

Mmboneni Mphigalale from Makwarela Home Affairs says Muofhe needs to come to his office with all the required documentation and her problem will be given special preference. “We will definitely help her to get her new ID as a matter of urgency. She must come and see me in my office…”