"HOME Affairs says I'm a man."
These are the words of Khululekile Gumede, a 24-year-old woman from Pienaar, near Mbombela, who is battling to amend her gender to female with Home Affairs.
Khululekile says her ordeal started in 2020 when she applied for an Identity Document (ID) at Home Affairs.
To her surprise, she discovered that her gender had been incorrectly recorded as male.
She was informed that the error occurred back in 2016.
The mum of two attended Deputy Home Affairs Minister Njabulo Nzuza's service delivery drive in Tekwane South, outside Mbombela, on Thursday, 12 June.
She shared her story with Daily Sun, revealing that in 2024, after giving birth to her second kid, she could not register her son's birth because of this issue.
"My life is at a standstill after dropping out of school. I cannot apply for social grants for my children due to the ID issue. Each time I enquire, I am sent from pillar to post. I even went to the doctor to prove I am female, but that has not changed anything," she said.
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Khululekile explained that she has tried multiple avenues to correct the error but has repeatedly failed.
She called on the government to step in and assist her in rectifying her gender on the ID.
Another victim, Excellent Ngomane, from Magogeni in Nkomazi, faces a different but equally frustrating dilemma involving his ID.
After losing his ID, Excellent went to the Home Affairs office in Komatipoort in 2011 to have it reissued.
However, he was stunned to learn that he had allegedly been deported to Eswatini, leading to his ID being blocked.
Excellent has been visiting Home Affairs offices for years to resolve the issue.
Tragically, his parents passed away while trying to assist him.
"I have submitted all the required documents, but my ID remains blocked. I am worried because I could lose my job, as my employer requires documents like an ID and passport. I haven't received my salary for nine months because I don't have a bank account. When I go to the bank, they send me back to Home Affairs.
"I've exhausted all options. I don't understand why Home Affairs blocked my ID, considering I was born here in South Africa, not in Eswatini," he said.
Nzuza remarked that Mpumalanga is among provinces where numerous individuals obtained their ID documents improperly when systems were less robust.
"Some of them are people who came from other countries and ended up in South Africa. Those people, when we moved to the smart ID card, were then flagged to come and explain themselves as to how they got their IDs.
"We know there will be resistance. Some of them, who are beneficiaries of fraud, would want to fight back. We are cleaning up the department because we are now moving up to digital spaces. We have to migrate every citizen of the country into the smart ID cards," he said
Nzuza said the department is committed to assisting all citizens with any issues related to their ID documents.
