We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
from Section C - Spatial identities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 April 2018
‘Your name?’
‘Hannah’
‘How do you spell it?’
‘H-a-n-n-a-h’
H|A|N|N|A|H, the policeman wrote painstakingly.
‘Your ID number?’
‘I don't have a South African ID … but my passport number is A470 …’
‘When were you born?’ interrupted the officer, glaring at Hannah.
‘I was born on twenty three March, nineteen eighty six.’
|1|9|8|6|0|9|2|3| | | | | | There were blank spaces left in the form, but this would have to do, the policeman thought to himself. His boss would have to understand – few migrant women had local identity documents. In any case, we all knew that they provided false information to hide their identities.
‘Nationality?’ he asked brusquely.
M|A|LA|W|IAN he wrote, squeezing the extra letters together. The form only provides six spaces for this entry. [5 spaces given above]
‘Address?’
‘Flat 103, Fatis Mansion, Jeppe; corner Harrison Street, Johannesburg.’
F|L|A|T| |1|0|3| |F|A|T|I|S| |M|A|N|S| | … continued officer Molokomme. His left hand moved slowly, making jerky movements with the strokes of his pen. Each letter was carefully written in the spaces and no matter what he felt, whether he believed in what he was writing or not, I could see he did take some pride in his written work. Knowing this was going to take a while, I resigned myself to watching the goings-on on Klein Street, right there where we stood, on the pedestrian path between Plein and De Villiers. I cast my eye at the scene in front of me and understood immediately why the superintendent and I were there – why we had to be there.
It was a late summer morning on the last day of March 2008. Although we were still 15 minutes away from midday, when the heat of the sun was inescapable, I was hot from the scorching sun on the police car's dashboard. The area is close to the Noord Street taxi rank, one of the busiest transport nodes in the city. It was easy to understand why the traders set up their illicit trade here – the number of people passing through daily guaranteed them a ready market. Moreover, business at the end of the month is always good.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
