Dear Ms Roos

I trust that you are well.

I write this email out of complete desperation, sadness and utter frustration. I’ve tried to contact counterparts from the DHA with failure since 2019, so I am reaching out to you in pure desperation and I see that you are a member of the portfolio committee.

My daughter was born in 2015, and at that time my wife and I were not married. My daughter was placed under my wife’s maiden surname which was the plan until we got married. We got married in 2017 and we made an application to amend my daughters surname to mine in 2018.

To date, every time we contact the Home Affairs contact center or the email address, we are advised that it has been escalated to the highest level – and we need to call next week for an update. Every single week we get told the same thing. Next month we will be in year four since the application was made and we are still getting the same feedback. It is truly heartbreaking and it is getting to the point where I’m not sure who to reach out to anymore.

I’ve attached the receipt of application, and the last email correspondence I’ve received where we were told to monitor every two weeks as we’ve been told since 2019 and never get a response. The reference number is 1910-228422. I’ve also attached a mail from 2020 with the exact same reference number being 1910-228422. We’ve been getting the exact same reference number since 2019 as well…

The process has taken extremely long and we are desperate for help in getting this finalized. Last year we struggled to get her into a School because of this issue, and we are under strain, and to be completely honest heartbroken that we are having to go through this.

We don’t know what else to do, but are hopeful that you can help us.

Please let us know if you are able to assist, and if not who we can contact for this.

Thank you in advance