Dear Editor,

The contradictory information flowing from GECOM as it relates to the distribution of National Identification Cards is harming rather than helping the process, as I have recently learned in a most distasteful manner.

Before proceeding to uplift my new card on Sunday, November 15 at the West Ruimveldt Primary School, I rang the hotline number and was informed my current ID card was a valuable form of identification, but this was heatedly rejected by the distribution clerks on duty. I conceded after being repeatedly told by one of the clerks, “Me ain’t deh in da!”  It was a few minutes later when I realized what it was she ‘in deh in.’

To my horror the head clerk on duty, who openly identified herself, suggested that I was up to something sinister by seeking to obtain my new card without the “pink slip” and/or my birth certificate. The suggestion was clear: I had turned up there to deceive them by uplifting a card which was not mine. The explanation I received from the head clerk after instantly rebuffing the suggestion was, “You ain’t look like the person on this new ID.”

I am yet to see this new ID card which presumably has the photograph of another woman, because I have not altered my appearance in three years except that I am now bespectacled. The official refused to show me the new card, a missed opportunity for me to establish at that stage whether GECOM might have erred with my photograph.

I am disappointed that GECOM has recruited individuals to distribute new cards in my district who have problems communicating with the public they are there to serve, but more importantly, I am offended at the suggestion that I am seeking to hoodwink the commission although I produced a legitimate ID card which was presented to me three years ago.

Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)