Mfuleni mother, 40, trapped without an ID as her three children go without birth certificates

Nontandi Harmaans, 40, lives in Mfuleni without a South African identity document, preventing her from taking some job opportunities. She supports her three children through casual work in Cape Town, sometimes earning only R150 a day, and says the family sometimes goes hungry. Her children have no birth certificates and cannot access the child support grant; their school admission required her to explain the family’s circumstances to the principal. Her mother, Nozixhamle Mandla, says Harmaans was born at home in Lady Frere in the Eastern Cape and was never taken to a clinic or hospital for registration.