Pretoria - A medical doctor and businessman spent 10 years as a persona non grata after Home Affairs officials in Polokwane “sold” his information to another person and cloned his ID.
Dr Mohammad Zaman is now claiming R400 million in damages from Home Affairs, saying his life was nearly ruined.
He said in papers before the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, that this was done while he lived in Canada for a while.
When he came back to South Africa, he discovered that “he no longer existed” as another person by the name of Farooq Mohammad, whom he did not know, owned his identity.
Zaman fought a legal battle to rectify the situation for years. Although the court in 2014 ordered the department to give him back his identity, this was only done in 2016 - 10 years after it was stolen from him.
His entire life had been in turmoil for a decade. Zaman said he was unable to drive as he could not renew his driving licence. He was sequestrated in 2010 and subsequently lost most, if not all, his assets.
He was also not able to attend and participate in the religious activities in his country of origin, Pakistan, because he did not have travel documents.
Mohammad said he was, for 10 years, a John Doe who did not exist, according to Home Affairs - all because of identity theft.
He could not face the nightmare which also affected his family and as a result he suffered a heart attack and had to have heart surgery in 2011.
Mohammad told court that he left South Africa in 2005 to go to Canada for a year. When he returned he found his ID number and names had been changed to a third person.
Home Affairs subsequently blocked the validity of his ID and passport in its system. His driving licence was
also confiscated by the department.
The department, six years later, issued a report in which it admitted that some of its officials in Polokwane were involved in fraudulently changing his details on the system.
Mohammad reported this to the police, yet Home Affairs did not rectify the situation. Even though he obtained a court order in 2014 to have it changed, nothing was done. He said it was only after he returned to court to obtain a contempt of court order, that matters were set right in 2016.
But by then he was financially, emotionally and psychologically ruined, he said. The matter was postponed to a later date.