Transgender eating again after finally getting an ID book

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Transgender woman Nadia Swanepoel has finally received a temporary ID from home affairs four years after her first application.

Swanepoel went on a hunger strike a week ago in protest at the delay in getting her documents from the Department of Home Affairs.

Transgender activist, Leigh Ann Van Der Merwe, says Swanepoel applied to amend her gender and name on her ID and was told on four occasions that her applications had been lost.

She says Swanepoel's plea to the department has finally been heard and she has started eating again.

Van Der Merwe says that they are doing their best to ensure that all transgender women enjoy their rights as contained in the 2003 Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Act 49.

"We have to make sure that every trans woman, her civil liberties as a citizen of this country first. before anything else. We all know the complexity of not having and ID. You cannot do transactions or open bank accounts. Most places where you go to these days want an ID number and proof of residence" she said