Cape Town – This Cape Flats woman has been battling to get a new identity document from the Department of Home Affairs because she has no fingerprints.
On Friday, Sandra Horne, 38, from Athlone hopes to write her matric exams but is afraid she will be booted out without a new valid identity document.
Sandra suffers from a rare skin disease, which has robbed her of her fingerprints, her hair and now possibly her education.
She was only two weeks old when doctors diagnosed her with Epidermolysis bullosa dystrophica – an extremely rare skin disease which leaves the skin fragile and blistering easily.
In severe cases, like Sandra’s, the patient has no epidermis, resulting in non-existent fingerprints and baldness.
Kids with this disease are referred to as “butterfly children” because their skin is delicate like that of a butterfly.
Sandra receives treatment at Groote Schuur Hospital.
“It is a rare skin condition; we all have three layers of skin, but I only have two layers, I don’t have an epidermis,” she explains.
Sandra Horne is unable to get a new ID from the department. Picture: Jack Lestrade
“This takes over my whole body and I am left with blisters. I don’t have fingerprints and I don’t have hair.”
In March, she visited Home Affairs in Wynberg and paid R140 for a Smart ID card.
She has an old ID book which she got as a child.
But now, two months later, she claims authorities have been giving her the run-around, questioning why she has no fingerprints.
“They told me there is a problem because they cannot find my fingerprints on the system."
“I even sent them emails saying I would obtain a police affidavit as I do not have fingerprints and they said they would overwrite the system,” she says.
Instead, she was told not to worry about getting a Smart ID Card, but to use her old green one.
“I cannot understand it when this is the way of the future, having a card instead of the book, and I have to write my Senior Certificate [tomorrow]. I hope my old identity document is still valid,” she says.
Thabo Mogola of the Department of Home Affairs says Sandra’s case is receiving special attention.
“The matter has been referred to the provincial manager for Home Affairs in the Western Cape for investigation with a view to resolving the issue,” he says.
“An official will contact the client to attain all the necessary information that may assist in this regard.”
Sandra says by Wednesday she had not received any feedback.