A 27-year-old Harare woman was relieved to learn that the birth certificate she applied for in 2017 at the Department of Home Affairs office in Khayelitsha will arrive soon.
Zizipho Tyesi said she had been sent from pillar to post when she followed up on the application. “I applied for my birth certificate in 2017, accompanied by my cousin. I did everything, including taking fingerprints. I even brought all the necessary documents from the school.”
Tyesi doesn’t know her mother’s whereabouts but says her father is somewhere in Khayelitsha. This has made life difficult for the mother of three.
She has been unable to get a birth certificate and to make applications for her children. She said every time she visited the department to track the progress of her certificate she would meet different people and hear a different story. It reached a point where she was about to give up on ever receiving a birth certificate.
She approached City Vision for help in meeting her challenge.
On Monday 31 July, the newspaper accompanied Tyesi and her elder sister to the department to find out why it took so long for a birth certificate to be issued.
On arriving the group was welcomed by an official who checked for Tyesi’s details in the system and found them.
The official said according to records, several unsuccessful attempts were made to contact Tyesi.
“The records show she was phoned more than three times to come to the department, and none of the calls were answered. When we checked her information, other documents such as the maternity certificate and a letter from the school where she was studying are missing. She needs to bring them.”
According to the official, Tyesi must be accompanied by her mother to initiate the birth certification process and if she doesn’t find her then she can come with her father. But a DNA test will have to be performed before the application can proceed.
“Everything is fine, except for those few documents that are missing,” he said, “and once we have them we can make the birth certificate for her. We will wait for her to bring them and only then can we proceed.”