'Too ugly' to be South African

2008-04-22 16:37

Siphiwe Nyathi & Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane

Acornhoek - A 68-year-old woman has been told that she can't get an ID because she is too ugly to be a South African citizen.

Clara Sibuyi from Bodlambongolo in Acornhoek, Mpumalanga, has struggled for 10 years to get an ID book and has been forced to beg for hand-outs because she can't receive her pension grant without one.

"I have tried everything I can in my power, but now it seems the ugliness has beaten me," said Sibuyi.

She says she has spent ten years going back and forth to the department of home affairs and trying to convince them she is South African.

"I have lost hope and just wish God would take me because my life is hard. I don't have money to travel to offices anymore. I am stuck," said Sibuyi.

She says the last time she went to home affairs' Thulamahashe offices on March 3, an official told her that she was too ugly to be a South African citizen.

Her surname was even misspelt on the copy of the department's acknowledgement of receipt.

They wrote a Mozambican surname, Xiburi, instead of Sibuyi.

"I was told that I look ugly, like a Maputo woman, and that's the reason my ID cannot be issued," says Sibuyi, sadly.

She says all four of her sisters have their IDs, while she is being treated like a foreigner.

"I am now a burden to everyone because I always ask for this or that, whereas I should be getting my old age grant and taking care of my grandchildren," she says.

Home affairs' manager for the Ehlanzeni region, Joana Molekwa, invited Sibuyi to her office to get help.

"It is very sad to see old people still struggling to get IDs," says Molekwa.

- African Eye