Nomvula Mahamuza, 21, from Weilers Farm has two children and is dependent on her 21-year-old boyfriend because she has no parents and no identity document. Picture: Simphiwe Mbokazi African News Agency (ANA) Nomvula Mahamuza, 21, from Weilers Farm has two children and is dependent on her 21-year-old boyfriend because she has no parents and no identity document. Picture: Simphiwe Mbokazi African News Agency (ANA)
Johannesburg - Children with no official documents are denied their human rights and access to services such as social grants, health care and schooling. This was the message from the Gauteng
Children’s Rights Committee (GCRC), a children’s rights advocacy agency.
The GCRC recently hosted a
community awareness meeting at Weilers Farm, an informal settlement in the south of Johannesburg. GCRC staff were joined by representatives from Home Affairs and the SA Social Security Agency.
Hundreds of community members, mostly young mothers and grandmothers, attended the meeting held at Weilers Farm clinic and shared their frustration at not being able to access social grants for their children and grandchildren who don’t have birth certificates.
GCRC social worker, Caroline Malindisa said lack of official documents hindered them from providing essential services to children, such as psychological help and advocacy work.
Malindisa said GCRC operated in informal settlements and peri-urban areas in Soweto,
Diepsloot and Weilers Farm. She said they recorded 192 undocumented children from the areas in which they operate and explained that lack of documentation resulted in poverty.
“It is important that people know that children have a right to an identity, a right to self and a right to receive help. For them to enjoy these rights, they need these documents,” she said.
Nomvula Mahamuza, 21, a mother of two, said her life was ruined because she didn’t have an ID, couldn’t get a job and was dependent on her boyfriend. Her children were also undocumented and could not access the state’s childcare grant.
“I left school because I couldn’t sit for my matric exams without an ID. I live in poverty and I feel like my life is over,” said Mahamuza while cradling her one-month-old baby.
She said her mother had abandoned her as a baby. The young mother said she had gone to Home Affairs and contacted social workers for help but could not access any since the only information she had of her mother was her name and surname.
“I believe my mother also didn’t have an ID. I don’t have any immediate family that can vouch for me and I feel helpless because this could be my children’s future. It hurts to be judged by people who think I am not doing enough to escape this life,” said Mahamuza, adding that if she were to get an ID, she would complete high school and get a job to provide for her children.
Children’s Rights attorney Annelie du Plessis blamed limited resources in the public and justice sectors for exposing children, especially those without documents, to further victimisation, secondary trauma and neglect.
“We try to assist families and children with South African parents to obtain documentation through DNA tests, and confirming paternity/maternity assists the department to issue documentation in some cases.
“We encourage caregivers and
relatives to apply where children have one South African parent, even if a court order secures such an application for documentation,” said Du Plessis.