Life is difficult for a Gamokgwathi village, Limpopo, woman Bonani Nkuna, 21, whose application for an identity document was turned down by the department of home affairs because she is "a man."

The problem started in 2000 after Nkuna, pictured, had applied for a birth certificate at home affairs in Gamokgwathi village, near Bolobedu.

The birth certificate came back stating that Nkuna was a male. She said because she was very young in 2008, she did not realise that her gender had been wrongly captured.

Nkuna then went to home affairs in Tzaneen to apply for an identity document, but it never came back.

According to home affairs, this was because the information on her birth certificate and on her application forms was contradictory.

Nkuna said after failing to get the identity document, she went to home affairs again last week to re-apply but was told to bring along an affidavit from her local police and a letter from a doctor confirming that she was not a man.

She said when she applied for an identity document at her local home affairs, the officials there turned her back because the information on her birth certificate was that she was a man.

"I dropped out of school because when the authorities needed my identity document I could not produce it.

"I became the laughing stock of my peers and schoolmates," Nkuna said.

She said she could not search for work because she had no identity document.

Sam Moremi, home affairs spokesperson in Limpopo, said the matter would be given urgent attention but advised Nkuna that it might take one or two months to rectify the mistake.