Life can be such a drag without an ID

Baluse Mmopedi an old man residing in Loologane, a sandveld 60km from Otse village in the Central District, cannot get old age pension because he does not have a national identity card.

He struggles to get a meal for the day. Mmopedi came to Loologane as a young man to look for a job as a herdboy. When he turned 16 years old his parents did not get him an ID card and he just went on without one. He has long passed 65 years old and is aware that he qualifies to benefit from the state-funded pension for the elderly because he sees some of his age-mates benefitting.

He says he was born at the time when people were being conscripted to join the Second World War. Oreneile Ramosesane, 22, lives at Tidimalo cattlepost, some 65km from Mosolotshane village. He looks after his master’s small stock. Ramosesane, like Mompedi, does not have an ID. He says he does not have a fare to travel to the village (Moralane) to process the ID card.

Ramosesane left school at a tender age to eke out a living in the cattlepost. He says that he hardly gets the time to travel to the village and that’s why he failed to get an ID when his age-mates found the chance.

Acting Registration Superintendent of the Central Region Oitsile Mapeu made it clear that he is aware that they need to visit the sandvelds to help Batswana acquire national ID cards.

While he admitted it was their duty to make frequent visits to the sandvelds, he said their biggest challenge was transport and funds. He said they realised that even some newborn babies in the sandvelds don’t have birth certificates as most time some parents just decide to give birth in their homes.