Letter: Waiting nearly two years for ID card

I AM a South African citizen and my husband is British. We have two children born in South Africa.

My husband's permanent residence permit was granted in June 2014. (We relocated to South Africa in 2011.)

After receiving the permit he went to the Port Elizabeth Home Affairs office to apply for his South African ID, without which he cannot apply for a bank account, job, driver’s licence, etc. The first visit was made in September 2014.

They made a copy of his residence permit and told him it would be faxed to Pretoria Home Affairs for verification. After that they would contact him on his mobile phone to come into the Port Elizabeth Home Affairs office again then actually to apply for the ID.

They took his mobile phone number. He received nothing in writing to serve as proof of this visit.

He was told he would wait two weeks for a phone call or SMS. We waited several months, but no phone call or SMS or e-mail.

He returned to the Port Elizabeth Home Affairs office four months later to follow up. He was told there was no record of his documents ever having been faxed to Home Affairs Pretoria, but that they would make new copies and start the process again.

The exact same procedure was performed this time and copies of his permanent residence permit were made. He was told again they would SMS once verification of the permit had taken place.

We waited a few more months, but no communication from Home Affairs. He returned to the Port Elizabeth Home Affairs office to enquire once again about the progress of verification, to be told they did not have anything on the computer system.

So we decided to go to the Uitenhage Home Affairs office and apply there. (I called the offices and they said yes, they could actually make the application for him there.)

So we drove through to Uitenhage Home Affairs and filled out the form DHA9 application for an ID card. It was date stamped 30/4/2015. We then proceeded to wait some more months with no phone call or SMS.

My husband then returned to the Uitenhage Home Affairs office to enquire about progress, to be told the manager was not there and he must return to enquire the following day. He drove through again and several hours later was told that in actual fact the Uitenhage Home Affairs office cannot apply for his ID card/book. It had to be done at the Port Elizabeth Home Affairs office.

This we have done three times and almost two years later my husband still does not have a South African ID document! He is unable to pay bills, get private medical aid or even apply for a job!

I have tried in vain to contact several different Home Affairs numbers provided on the internet, but get through to none. I feel like I have exhausted all my options and do hope that by raising this issue with the media we will finally get somewhere.