Woman with no fingerprints battles to get ID

Source: Daily Voice, 25/05/2017

Cape Town This Cape Flats woman has been battling to get a new
identity document from the Department of Home Affairs because she has
no fingerprints.


On Friday Sandra Horne 38 from Athlone hopes to write her matric exams
but is afraid she will be booted out without a new valid identity
document.


Sandra suffers from a rare skin disease which has robbed her of her
fingerprints her hair and now possibly her education.
ShSandra Horne 38 is struggling to get a new ID as she does not have
fingerprints.


She was only two weeks old when doctors diagnosed her with
Epidermolysis bullosa dystrophica an extremely rare skin disease
which leaves the skin fragile and blistering easily.


In severe cases like Sandras the patient has no epidermis resulting in
non-existent fingerprints and baldness.


Kids with this disease are referred to as butterfly children because
their skin is delicate like that of a butterfly.


Sandra receives treatment at Groote Schuur Hospital.


It is a rare skin condition we all have three layers of skin but I
only have two layers I don not have an epidermis she explains.


Sandra Horne is unable to get a new ID from the department. Picture:
Jack Lestrade
This takes over my whole body and I am left with blisters. I don not
have fingerprints and I dont have hair.


In March she visited Home Affairs in Wynberg and paid R140 for a Smart
ID card.


She has an old ID book which she got as a child.
But now two months later she claims authorities have been giving her
the run around questioning why she has no fingerprints.
They told me there is a problem because they cannot find my
fingerprints on the system.


I even sent them emails saying I would obtain a police affidavit as I
do not have fingerprints and they said they would overwrite the system
she says.


Instead she was told not to worry about getting a Smart ID Card but to
use her old green one.


I cannot understand it when this is the way of the future having a
card instead of the book and I have to write my Senior Certificate
[tomorrow]. I hope my old identity document is still valid she
says.


Thabo Mogola of the Department of Home Affairs says Sandras case is
receiving special attention.


The matter has been referred to the provincial manager for Home
Affairs in the Western Cape for investigation with a view to resolving
the issue he says.


An official will contact the client to attain all the necessary
information that may assist in this regard.


Sandra says by Wednesday she had not received any feedback.
Daily Voice