A resident of Louis Trichardt, Mr Mohmed Patel (65), is up in arms after the local office of the Department of Home Affairs refused to help him to renew his identity documents.
Patel visited the Home Affairs office to change his old ID book and get a new ID card. He claims that he was turned away because he was born in India.
"They said I should go to the Bungeni offices to apply for my ID there," he said. "I was so shocked and disappointed, because I live in Eltivillas in town, and Bungeni is out of town and far away from me."
He added that the moment they mentioned that he should go to Bungeni because he was not born in South Africa, the first word to come to his mind was "discrimination".
"I am a taxpayer and a South African citizen, and I see no reason why I should be subjected to this kind of disrespect and separation," he said. "All I wanted was just to change my ID book because the pages are torn and ragged, so it had always been giving me problems whenever I made transactions."
The provincial manager for the Department of Home Affairs, Mr Albert Matsaung, said that the department had introduced smart-card ID facilities to most of their offices and all offices that had those facilities were no longer offering the green-barcoded ID book.
"However, Mr Patel should not have been turned away without a clear explanation, if that's the case," Matsaung said. "This only means that he has to use the services of any nearest office that still offers a green, barcoded ID book, which is either Bungeni or Tshitale in his case. But he can still approach the manager at the Louis Trichardt office for assistance. I'll further liaise with him (the manager) to sort out this issue," he said.