"My life is on standstill thanks to Home Affairs"

Source: Groundup, 17/08/2016

Two men born on the same day with the same name have the same ID
number


Luzuko Gijana (27) from Cofimvaba Magwala Village near Queenstown
recently found out that someone else was using his name, surname and
identification number.


He said he went to Home Affairs in Cofimvaba, who confirmed that there
was another Luzuko Gijana with the same date of birth and ID number.
The other Luzuko Gijana lives in Libode just outside Mthatha.
Gijana said the officials at Home Affairs in Cofimvaba advised him to
apply for another ID which he did last year July but it never came
back. He said he went back again after two months but was again
advised to apply for another ID.


Department of Home Affairs in Cofimvaba has called people to visit
their offices to fix their duplication identification books. This
comes after GroundUp sent a media inquiry regarding a Cofimvaba man
who's been waiting months for Home Affairs to fix his duplicate
ID.


Gijana travels to Ceres in the Western Cape to do seasonal work on
farms. "We get contracts from July until March the following year. I
started working there in July 2014. Last year I went back. I did not
get my first payment. I asked my bosses why I was the only one not
paid. They showed me my payment on their system and asked me to
contact my bank," said Gijana


It was then that he discovered the problem. "When they checked they
told me that the money was paid to the other Luzuko. This happened for
a few months." In fact Luzuko received a loan meant for his namesake.
And his namesake received his wages. Luckily they managed to get in
touch with each other by phone and transferred money between their
accounts. This kind of confusion happened until the bank closed his
account.


"At Capitec in Ceres they said there's nothing they can do to help me.
I must go to Home Affairs. I had to stop working because we were only
allowed to use Capitec bank not other banks," said Gijana looking
down.


"My life is on standstill, thanks to Home Affairs. It's been a year
now waiting for Home Affairs to fix this problem, each time when I go
to look for my ID, officials advised me to apply for another one," he
said.


"I did not finish school. My mother passed away while I was very
young. In 2010 my father also passed away. I had an elder brother who
used to look after me and my younger brother, but he is also no
more.

Now it is my duty to look after my sibling but it is
hard. I cannot find a decent job because I did not finish school. On
farms at least there are no qualifications needed," said
Gijana.


Home Affairs Eastern Cape Provincial Manager Mziyanda Maki said
Gijana's application is still in progress. He said it was referred to
the Duplicate section on the day GroundUp sent a media inquiry to the
department.


"The system shows that it was last attended to in May 2016 at Head
Office," he said.


Maki said each week they receive many duplicate cases at their offices.