Five-year ID hell ends for family after Daily Maverick exposé
Afive-year ordeal over blocked identity documents has ended in tears of joy for Thulisile Gumede after a Daily Maverick exposé. Thulisile Gumede appealed for help at the Legal Resource Centre, and later to Daily Maverick, to try to resolve the issue which first saw her ID blocked along with those of her three sons, Lungani, Luthando and Methembe. Hers was unblocked in 2022 but the department kept a hold on her sons’ IDs.
“I’m a free woman now. My son (Lungani) is going to Home Affairs to apply for his ID. What a great moment for him just to have an ID. He is looking forward to having an ID because his life was stuck,” she said.
Gumede spent four years trying to get her own ID unblocked after finding out in 2017 that Home Affairs had put a marker on it on their system. She was not told the reason for this, but had to undertake a lengthy process to get her document unblocked.
This included travelling to KwaZulu-Natal from Gauteng to get affidavits from those who knew her, to prove her South African status.
She also had to pay for a DNA test with her mother. Gumede said she lost a lot of time and money in the process, being unable to purchase a home or get a new car, despite working as a teacher.
Her eldest son, who is 23, was unable to apply for a driver’s licence or to find work. While he managed to study, the ID problem haunted him from exam to exam.
“I look crazy sometimes when I tell people I don’t have an ID. It’s like I am not a citizen,” he previously said. Lungani visited Home Affairs recently to apply for an ID document, after being assured it would be granted.
A tearful Gumede said she was elated. “I am so happy. It felt like I was dead. I was nothing, I was useless in my life. I’m not crying because I’m sad, I’m crying because I’m happy. I’m crying because I see light that is coming towards my boys,” Gumede said. Thandeka Chauke, who heads the Lawyers for Human Rights Statelessness Project, said she was relieved to hear the family’s ordeal was finally over. The centre had taken on their case, along with those of more than 100 other people with blocked IDs.
“The fact that they were stuck in limbo for five years, unable to access basic services and opportunities, is a testament to the bureaucratic and systemic issues that continue to plague the Department of Home Affairs,” said Chauke.
“There is a need for continued attention to the ID blocking issue because there are many more South Africans who have been stripped of their citizenship and their human rights through arbitrary and opaque decision-making processes,” she said.
The LHR has joined a case in which the department’s ID blocking process is being challenged, calling for an overhaul of the process.