Losing my identity

Johannesburg, 18 Jul 2006

Let me introduce you to my husband - hi honey - his name is Joel Kopping. His name, not mine. I`m Mawson. Or that`s who I thought I was.

Nothing at all is in my 'married` surname; not my ID book, driver`s licence, shared bond or municipal rates. Not even those ubiquitous shop accounts.

This does not stop distant relatives, however, from repeatedly addressing wedding and bar mitzvah invitations to some Nicola Kopping person.

My logic for keeping my name was simple. For close on three years now, I`ve been writing as me. And, while I`m not bigheaded enough to think that I may have a fan base, readers may be confused by the sudden disappearance of Nicola Mawson, who was replaced with a Nicola Kopping.

And apart from that high-and-mighty reason for keeping my name, who can be bothered to stand in umpteen queues to change a name?

So, imagine my surprise - and small identity crisis - when Virgin Money followed up on my last column and told me that, actually, I was Nicola Kopping. Really?

Yup, ITC - that infamous credit bureau - had somehow captured me as Nicola Kopping, aka Nicola Mawson.

But what about the next time I attempt to open an account? Buy a car? A yacht?
Nicola Mawson

Apparently, before Virgin Money had run a credit check, First Rand did. Now I`m just going to assume that this was for the bond. And I`m just going to assume it added hubby`s name as some sort of a quick-search reference against mine. I`m assuming this because I don`t know any better and can hardly call the switchboard and demand the name of whoever processed all that information.

And, while this may seem like a laugh-a-minute joke-town, it is not. Virgin was obliged to treat me like a criminal. It ran a full fraud check. Which is only fair, as I`m posing as some Kopping-aka-Mawson-person.

But what about the next time I attempt to open an account? Buy a car? A yacht? So, I call up ITC and tell the bureau that Kopping is not my surname. No problem, fax a copy of your ID (which I never had renewed so it absolutely says Mawson) and we`ll fix it. "Cover letter", not necessary, I`m told. It`ll take about a week.

One-and-a-half weeks later, and I`m now Nicola Nobody - kinda like the names they put on those example credit cards, like the one that finally arrived on Tuesday. And now apparently ITC has to ask Home Affairs if I am who I say I am. And, it cannot just "look in the system and tell me who changed my surname".

Now, Home Affairs has the Home Affairs National Information System (Hanis) in the pipeline, which aims to "provide integrated and convenient services to citizens through the use of information systems". Hopefully this will reduce the amount of ID fraud, and make it easier for women to marry and keep their names.

However, as there is - at this point - technically no such person as Nicola Mawson - I`m going home.