South Africa: ‘Home Affairs Said I Was a Foreigner Because of My Vaccination Marks’
Published: 8/Mar/2017
Source: Ground Up (Cape Town)
A Port Elizabeth woman says the Department of Home Affairs claimed she was a foreigner because of vaccination marks on her arm and refused to issue her with an identity document. The Department has denied this.Bongiwe Jokazi, 30, of Zwide, said she went to the Port Elizabeth Home Affairs offices on 21 February with her grandmother.
Bongiwe Jokazi, 30, of Zwide, said she went to the Port Elizabeth Home Affairs offices on 21 February with her grandmother. She had a letter from the district manager of the Department of Health requesting Home Affairs to issue her with an identity document, following a previous request from Home Affairs to get birth records from the clinic where she was born.
“I was put in a small room where two ladies checked both my shoulders. They went back and told their senior manager that I had dimples on my right shoulder. They said that those marks are signs of vaccination found on foreigners. The ladies’ superior then replied in English telling them that I was a foreigner trying to acquire a South African identity card illegally.”