This is according to the Provincial Chairperson of ActionSA in the Free State, Patricia Kopane. She says residents from Boshof, with a population of about 8 509, must travel to Kimberley in the Northern Cape if they want to apply for identity documents. This costs them at least R100 for a return trip, which is unaffordable as many of them do not receive social grants because they do not have identity documents. 

She adds that a mobile service truck from Welkom serves the area once a quarter, and only for a day. Kopane says the party has written to the Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, requesting him to dispatch mobile service trucks to this farming town in the west Free State.

“It is important for Home Affairs to ensure that Boshof residents are assisted with a regular mobile truck that will serve them. We have given the minister 14 days to respond to our correspondence. We will not let this matter rest. We will follow it up until this request is granted. Without an identity document, you are no one in your own country. This is a gross violation of human rights,” she said.

Kopane further states that the Principal of Aramela Combined School in Boshof has been utilising his own resources to transport students and their parents to Kimberley to get their identity documents.

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