Jun 8, 2011
A 70-year-old Limpopo woman was told that her dead parents would have to accompany her to the Department of Home Affairs' offices to prove her "origins" before she could be issued with an identity document, the DA said yesterday.
"As a result of this absurd insistence by officials, Mama Paulinah has not voted since the dawn of democracy," said the DA's Limpopo leader, Desiree van der Walt. "She is unable to receive her old age grant and lives in a shack when all her neighbours have RDP houses."
Paulinah Ragatji lives in Ga-Makgoba, near Polokwane, and looks after four grandchildren, two of whom are orphans. Her parents died many years ago, Van der Walt said.
"She has been denied all the rights and benefits that accrue to all of us as South African citizens," she said.
Home Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said he was not aware of the case.
He said that, if it were true, it would be "despicable and unimaginable" to expect a 70-year-old woman to produce her parents to ensure that she was issued with an identity document.
"The department will have to investigate and ensure that this woman's dignity is reinstated as soon as possible," he said.
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