Lebo and Lebogang Munyai from Stinkwater have struggled for 31 years to get birth certificates. Picture: Oupa Mokoena/African News (ANA)
Pretoria - The Munyai twin sisters from Stinkwater have had to endure a heartbreaking life of living without birth certificates for 31 years after their mother abandoned them at Jubilee hospital after she gave birth.
Lebo and Lebogang Munyai were jubilant last week after they were finally granted birth certificates after receiving help from the DA women’s network in Tshwane.
The pair said their father was tossed from pillar to post by the Department of Home Affairs, which required him to prove his paternity to the children before he could apply for their birth certificates.
On Friday, they told the Pretoria News that for decades their father faced the difficulty of raising money for performing a DNA test.
Their father even tried to put together a police affidavit to demonstrate that he was their parent.
After a number of years, their mother, who abandoned them in hospital, reappeared – but she died before she could sort out their birth certificates.
Lebogang said: “Our father was denied to do birth certificates for us on his own because they suspected he might have stolen us.”
Their father, Lucas Munyai, died last year at the age of 62 while he was still fighting for his children to obtain birth certificates and have an identity.
“My father was sick but his health condition was worsened by our struggle to get a South African identity document.
“He was always stressed and used to express concern about what the future holds for us without identity documents (IDs),” said Lebo.
She said her father was deeply worried that his daughters would find life even more difficult should he die without having secured them birth certificates.
“My father was struck by a stroke and died last year in February,” she said.
The death of their father left the twins helpless and more frustrated because their “pillar of strength had gone”. However, they refused to give up and held out for a better future.
The duo went to the Home Affairs offices in Soshanguve, where they sought advice on the way forward after their father’s death.
“They told us that we can perform the DNA test with our surviving paternal aunt.
“We didn’t have money to go for the test and the DA people came on board to help us.
“We were able to do the test with our aunt and the result came (back) positive.
“Afterwards we had to go for interviews at Home Affairs and subsequently they were able to issue us with birth certificates, which we took to apply for IDs. We are now waiting for our IDs,” Lebo said.
They spoke with heavy hearts as they remembered how their lives were put on hold for decades as they could not look for jobs or apply for government grants.
What was more frustrating was that they could not record their children with the Home Affairs Department because they are required to have IDs to do so.
“Living without an identity document was frustrating to me and I felt worthless in this world without (an) identity.
“When people go out to look for jobs I couldn’t be part of them,” one twin said.
The Munyai sisters bemoaned the fact that they never voted in their lives.
“We didn’t have proof that we were born in South Africa. We were even scared that one day we might be deported to foreign countries because no one was able to prove our South African citizenship,” they said.
The first thing that they wanted to do as soon as they received their IDs was “to get their children’s birth certificates and apply for child support grants. We will also go to look for employment”.
DA women's network chairperson in Tshwane, Sandy Khathutshelo Mbuvha said the plight of the Munyai twins was brought to her party’s attention following years of unsuccessful attempts by the twins to obtain assistance from government agencies.
She said one of the key causes of this intergenerational statelessness of South Africans was the lack of free DNA testing for indigent South African fathers or relatives.
Mbhuvha said the DA has called on Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi to ensure that the national laboratory conducts free DNA tests for indigent South Africans where such a test is required by Home Affairs to prove South African citizenship as any caring government would.
Pretoria News
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