ID nightmare for senior citizen

Getting an elderly woman issued with national documents is proving to be a daunting task for her relatives who claim to have tried for close to ten years without success. Relatives of 75-year-old Victoria Lipitwa Haimbodi, a resident of Ohamikoka village in the Epembe Constituency of Ohangwena, have expressed disappointment with the way Home Affairs officials have sent them from pillar to post for the past nine years. One of Haimbodi’s sons, 51-year-old Rehabeam Henock, who is a member of the Namibian Defence Force, says the family has struggled since 2005 to get Haimbodi issued with national identification papers to no avail. Haimbodi’s church documents reveal that she was born on May 15, 1939 at Okanghudi; baptised in the Anglican Church at Onamunama on August 15, 1945 and married to Henock Haufiku Petrus in September 1956. Henock said his mother’s national documents got lost many years ago when she was mentally ill. “She was mentally ill long before I went into exile in 1978, but her condition has ever since stabilised. She has currently neither a birth certificate nor an ID card. We have tried to get her issued with all the relevant documents and to register her for the old-age pension, but the process has been frustrated by Home Affairs officials using a variety of excuses,” he said. “On several occasions,” he said, “they demanded that we produce declarations from many different people, but they were never satisfied with such documents when we presented them.” He said in 2007 the family presented a letter from the headman of Ohamikoka village where Haimbodi currently lives, but the officials then wanted to see a declaration from Epembe Constituency Councillor Johannes Nakwafila. Nakwafila wrote a letter of reference on November 6, 2008, but still the officials refused to issue Haimbodi with an ID or a birth certificate, demanding instead a declaration from the headman of Okanghudi village, where Haimbodi was born. When the declaration from the acting headman of President Hifikepunye Pohamba’s village was presented, the officials were allegedly still not satisfied and demanded a declaration from a close relative. Haimbodi’s elder sister, Maria, wrote a sworn statement dated August 26, 2009 but this was not enough either. “The officials’ new excuse was that Haimbodi was too old to be issued with an ID or a birth certificate,” Henock said. He said after going through the same process over and over again Haimbodi’s relatives no longer know what to do. The ministry’s spokesperson, Salome Kambala, has promised to personally take up the matter and make sure that the elderly woman is issued with the necessary documents. She said Haimbodi’s marriage certificate, a statement from the village headman and a sworn declaration by a relative who is in possession of a valid Namibian ID as well as a health passport proving that she was indeed ill, would be enough to get her issued with national documents. “Let them get in touch with me; I will take up the matter,” she said. OSHAKATI PLACIDO HILUKILWA