Katrina Jacobs of Delft celebrated her 62nd birthday on a sad note last week.
She is still unable to register for an old age pension grant, and depends on her children to feed and clothe her.
Last year February, the pensioner appealed to the Daily Voice for help her after her pleas for a new ID number went unanswered.
Home Affairs and Sassa claimed she died 10 years ago.
According to authorities, Katrina has been dead for the past decade, despite getting divorced, voting and receiving medical attention at five different state hospitals.
Katrina, who has four kids and seven grandchildren, says Home Affairs claimed her identity number is exactly the same as a woman who died in Nelspruit in 2006.
The Delft granny has never been to Nelspruit, and says she doesn’t even know where it is.
The alarm was raised after her 60th birthday in September 2015, when she found out she could not apply for her social grant.
At the time, Home Affairs national spokesperson Mayihlome Tshwete said they would look into the situation.
But Katrina says they only responded more than a year later.
In June, she was invited to a meeting with the department where a new identity number was requested after she had to re-register her birth.
BAFFLED: The ouma was declared dead 10 years ago
But it’s nearly three months later, and Katrina says she has received nothing.
The ouma, who suffers from arthritis, asthma and high cholesterol, says she is gatvol.
“I have given up all hope. I met with the committee at Home Affairs and they said I will get a new identity number but I am still waiting,” she says.
“I have to live off my children’s money, they have to support me. I cannot draw pension.”
Dianne Adams, 34, says in June, officials at Home Affairs in Bellville said her mother didn’t exist on their system.
“They said that her birth wasn’t registered by her father, I find that strange since my mother had children, she’s been hospitalised and she’s been through a divorce,” she says.
“Each time I come there they say they cannot find the file. Why is this information not being sent to Pretoria but is being filed?”
On Tuesday, Home Affairs spokesperson Thabo Mokola promised feedback on the matter and again asked for Katrina’s details.