Prove your citizenship

24 hours - That's what Home Affairs has given Soweto-born Kaya FM producer to prove he is South African

KAYA FM executive producer Thabo Shole-Mashao was racing against time yesterday in a bid to prove to the Department of Home Affairs that he is a South African. Shole-Mashao, 31, went to Home Affairs to apply for a new passport but officials confiscated his ID and gave him 24 hours to prove that he was born in the country or go to jail. "I had thought that I would be in and out of the place because it is usually quite a quick process. I was taken aback when it took longer than expected since the Home Affairs official consulted her records. "After a while she said 'it shows that you are an illegal immigrant. You are not from South Africa'. Then she showed me the screen with the word "illegal" written next to my ID number. "She then confiscated my ID and gave me 24 hours to prove that I was born here or face the law."

Johannes Lekekeli, manager of the Department of Home Affairs offices on Harrison Street, said it appeared that proper procedures had not been followed when informing Shole-Mashao that he was suspected of being an illegal immigrant. "In instances like these there is a document that the person is given called a Section 33 form listing the requirements. It is something that needs to be investigated if he was not given notice with a maximum of 14 days to respond. Twenty-four hours is not applicable," he said. Instead of getting a Section 33 form Shole-Mashao was given a handwritten list of requirements to prove that he was a South African. Shole-Mashao said: "She told me that I need to present a handwritten birth certificate, a school letter each from my primary and high school, a maternity letter, a baptismal certificate and an original marriage certificate because I told her I had recently gotten married." He was also given three forms to be filled in by the hospital and schools to verify his identity. Shole-Mashao suspects he is a victim of a cloned identity. He was apparently asked by the Home Affairs officials if he had ever lost his identity document but said he could not remember. Lekekeli said incidents of identity theft were only happening "here and there" since the department improved its security mechanisms in the issuing of ID documents. But she confirmed that some cases still occurred "here and there". Lekekeli said Shole-Mashao's case would be investigated. At the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospita,l where Shole-Mashao went to obtain records of his birth, the archivists told Sowetan they got several people with similar problems every month.