Lufuno Emmanuel Mashau is a 24-year-old disabled person who has been wheelchair-bound since he was a child. Lately, his problems are not limited to his inability to walk, but also his inability to persuade the Department of Home Affairs to issue him with a correct ID so that he can claim his disability grant.

Lufuno has been receiving a disability grant for a number of years. In May last year, however, it was stopped because it was then discovered that he shared an ID number with someone else.

Mashau’s single mother, Selinah Mashau, says officers from the South African Social Security Agency accused her of taking illegal immigrants as her own.

Emmanuel, the last-born in the family of five children, says he was informed that his ID number was a duplicate. “The officers told me I should go and find the person whom I was sharing an ID with at Makhado town, in Nzhelele. We then hired a car to go to Makhado, where we were informed that I was sharing an ID with someone who had received his ID document the previous month,” he explains.

“At the home affairs offices in Makwarela, they said the person whom I was sharing an ID with was Emmanuel Tendani Mashau who works at Tshilidzini hospital. After meeting the other Emmanuel, we both re-applied for new IDs. His came back, but mine did not come back,” says a worried Emmanuel.

Emmanuel, who also applied for an ID in February and March, said he was first told that his application did not succeed and was later told that his file was missing. “In June this year, home affairs told me that my file was missing. Social workers from Vuwani gave me a certain number which they said I had to use to collect my grant for three months, which would be renewed after that, but that did not happen,” says Emmanuel.

His mother, Selinah, who is working in Gauteng as a kitchen girl, says she is now suffering from high blood pressure because of the frustrations. “This thing has affected me to an extent that I am now living on pills. My son is also very frustrated and at some stage he called a national radio station to raise his concern, but there was no solution,” says the mother.

On June 21, Emmanuel’s room burnt down after he left the candle burning when going to sleep. This happened because there was no money to buy electricity units. His church, The Tower of Grace Church in Tshivhazwaulu, outside Thohoyandou, is helping the family with groceries and candles.

The national spokesperson for Home Affairs, Cleo Mosana, said they would investigate the matter to find out what the prob-lem might be.