Who am I? Letter to the editor

SA – I tried to renew my driver’s licence in April 2018. Guess what?!? My licence was declined due to my fingerprints not matching those on record in the database at the Department of Home Affairs (DOHA).

After googling the problem, I learned that I was one of more than 300,000 applicants whose fingerprints were swapped around in the database by the BEE company doing the card renewals, out of spitefulness, due to their contract not being renewed. This resulted that I’m now sitting with someone else’s prints against my identity in the database of the DOHA.

After many frustrating hours of negotiation, I eventually received my new driver’s licence card more than a year later, this time marked “NO PRINT” – where my fingerprint was supposed to be.

This did not bother me much at the time; however, I have found subsequently that I’m now unable to open a new bank account, since they all refer back to the database of the DOHA for a match before they will open the account. 

I then made an affidavit at the local SAPS office. They looked at me as if I was mentally challenged, and again took my prints to check after I had paid a fee.

After about three months, they informed me that my prints were “clean”, without matching any known criminal event. Still, they did nothing to correct the wrong prints in the database of the DOHA.
I have now given up…

Faulty Fingerprints