South Africa- ID crisis after sex change ends in court

[SandraJane]

ID crisis after sex change ends in court


ZELDA VENTER, High Court Reporter | May 10 2012 at 03:05pm


http://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/id-crisis-after-sex-change-ends-in-court-1.1293908



Jacqui Louw, who was once a man, is embroiled in a legal battle with Home Affairs to obtain an ID book reflecting that she is now a woman.



THE DREAM of a woman from Durbanville in Cape Town – who was once a man – is to hold her new birth certificate and identity document (ID) in her hand, reflecting her new sex.

Jacqui Louw desperately needs these documents so she can travel to America to cross the last hurdle – voice surgery – in her quest to be a true woman.

The new documents will also make life a lot easier for this 41-year-old redhead, as she is no longer a man as reflected on her identity documents.

She cannot travel as she cannot get a passport.

Neither can she get a job, as she cannot prove her true identity.

[AbraCadabra]

Hells Bells!
I'm ever so sorry to read this article - also for the reasons to be in exactly the SAME position!

I am busy with the Home Affairs Department since 8 months and I have NO idea why in such an important situation, no job, discrimination, road blocks (there are plenty), etc. it needs to take 1 year for these folks to get their arses into gear.
I have send email reminders galore, being put off for the next 3 weeks, and the next 3 weeks, on and on.

I can be grateful that this woman is kicking up a fuzz, and the courts kicking up this department's arse. Many people have been totally frustrated by their inefficiencies, including loosing documents on a regular basis!
It also is not the first trans woman I know that has appeared in court over it all, as well as in the news papers.
Yet, Home Affairs works *completely* on "Africa Time" it is horrendous.

Thank you for sharing this item,
Axélle

[Jamie D]

Fed up after a two-year struggle with the Department of Home Affairs, Louw obtained a Pretoria High Court order last week compelling the department to consider her application within 30 days to have her birth certificate and ID altered to show her new sex.

But Louw told the Pretoria News yesterday she did not hold much hope of having these documents soon.

The department immediately responded following the order and met her at its office in Belville yesterday, but Louw was faced with another problem.

"They told me they had mislaid my original documents and that I had to apply again for these documents." Louw again filled in the forms, had her fingerprints taken and went through the formalities.

(From the linked article)

And bureaucrats wonder why the people distrust them!

[AbraCadabra]

I have to say that personally I have not ever encountered any transphobia -face to face- where I live (Pretoria). Touch wood.

What we do encounter is utter lack of efficiency - as one might see it from an European perspective.
In Europe the inefficient genes died of sorts, as survival required a different life-strategy.

In Africa you survive on different parameters, and being efficient in any form or fashion is absolutely NOT one of them. Time does not actually seem to exist... see you tomorrow can mean ... next year?

The ID would take 6 weeks to be done. Next it was 9 - 12 month!
Any difference? Oh...? No, not really.

Axélle

[justmeinoz]

Thank goodness we rejected the Australia Card years ago.
Given my recent run-ins with CentreLink over posting me mail with my old name on, I dread to think what they would do with an ID card.
All they do is give the criminals another way to make money anyway. 

Karen.

[AbraCadabra]

You can talk you head off, all you get is their standard reply see below:

Thank you for writing to the Department of Home Affairs Customer Service Centre.

With regard to the below mentioned enquiry, please be advised that the application is still in process and is yet to be finalized. Kindly be advised the application for rectification can takes 6-8 months before it can be finalized.

Please make an enquiry with us in a period of three weeks for a progress update.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and frustration caused by the delay thus far.

This is by now the 7th or 8th reply I once again received just now.

Axélle
PS: It would need a bomb of some sort to wake-up this lot. The courts can just talk till THEY are blue in the face too. So much for ID docs...