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Department gets it wrong , wronger , wrongest

Source: Sunday Times – Pericles Anetos, 02/08/2015


THE Department of Home Affairs was slapped with an order to pay legal
costs on Wednesday — because of its hopeless attempts to produce an
unabridged birth certificate for a couple`s 14-year-old daughter.

According to papers in the High Court in Pretoria, the department took
four tries and almost a year to get the document right — only
producing the correct version after it was dragged to court on Tuesday.

The saga began on August 6 last year, when Paula McStay applied for
the certificate so that her daughter could start school in Ireland on
August 26 2015. First, the department took seven months to issue the
certificate. When it finally arrived, McStay`s name and surname were
wrong — and, she noticed later, her ID number was missing.

The second version — produced on May 29 this year — contained all the
original mistakes, and the name of the Irish city of Dublin was now
spelt "Dubhn".

Home affairs`s third try — which arrived on June 12 — saw every error
that had been pointed out to the department copied on the new certificate.

Finally, at around 10am on Wednesday this week, a day after launching
the court application, McStay received her daughter`s valid,
unabridged birth certificate.

According to court papers, McStay, who lives in Pretoria, went to home
affairs offices every week after making her application a year ago.

New regulations that came into effect on June 1 this year make it
mandatory for all children under the age of 18 to have an unabridged
birth certificate when leaving or arriving in the country.

A relieved McStay said: "It has taken a great toll on us, especially
on my health."


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