Boiketlo’s quest for an ID

The Department of Home Affairs has promised to investigate after a desperate young woman turned to Vukani for help to get an identity document.

Twenty-year-old Mfuleni resident Boiketlo Moloi doesn’t have an ID. Because of this, her child doesn’t have a birth certificate and now the college she attends is warning that she’ll have to stop attending classes if she doesn’t present them with her identity document.

Ms Moloi told Vukani she applied for an ID at the Home Affairs office in Khayelitsha two yeas ago. Then she waited.

When she was informed that some documents were missing, she re-submitted her application. And then she waited again.

After she had made numerous enquiries, she was later advised to apply for an unabridged birth certificate before she could apply for an ID.

So she did. But she still doesn’t have an identity document.

Adding to her woes is that Ms Moloi, who is doing her first year of a business and logistics course at a private college, has been told by the school’s management that she will have to stop attending school until she brings the ID.

She said she has pleaded with the school to allow her to complete her studies.

“My future is at stake,” said Ms Moloi. “My life is miserable and one day I could be told to never return to school forever.”

Vukani has been unable to get hold of the relevant person at the college who can comment on this.

Ms Moloi told Vukani that in her desperation to have this matter resolved, she tried going to the Home Affairs offices in Somerset West and Mitchell’s Plain.

“I have visited different Home Affairs offices and yet nothing seems to be working. I simply want to have an ID,” she said.

“My daughter does not have a birth certificate because I don’t have an ID myself. I feel like I don’t exist now. I have run out of ideas and I’m appealing for help.”

Department of Home Affairs spokesperson, Thabo Mokgola, said they would investigate the matter and hopefully resolve it.