Zinhle Mapumulo

Zinhle Mapumulo

Sheenaz Adams is finally free to marry the man of her dreams after the Department of Home Affairs eventually issued her with her long-awaited identity book.

But it is too late.

Her fiance died before the couple could tie the knot.

Home Affairs four years to return her ID after one of thousands of notorious identity bungles.

Adams, 46, and her long-time lover, Mohamed Isaacs were planning to walk down they aisle in 2003 when they got the shock of their lives. Adams found out she was already married to a Pakistani man she had never met.

Home Affairs then held on to her ID while investigating the bogus marriage.

It was only last week that Adams received a call from the department to come and collect her identity document at the Johannesburg offices.

Unfortunately for the lovebirds, they had missed the boat. Isaacs had already died in March this year after a short illness.

"I don't know whether I should be happy or sad about this. Home Affairs really messed my life up and robbed me of the only thing I ever wanted in life, to be Mrs Isaacs," said Adams.

"The past four years have been very difficult for us. All we ever talked about was the day we would be made one. But now all that is gone and it is because of this incompetent department," she said.

Adams found out she was married to Pakistani-born Abdul Majid Adbulkaium in 2003. She reported it to home affairs and the department retained her original ID while they investigated.

A year later she discovered she was actually "twice married" to a Zeid Vali from India, and subsequently to a third man, Pakistani Faruk Gulam Shaikh, who in 2004 was living in East London.

The three marriages took place a month after she reported the matter to the department. The marriages have since been annulled.