afrol.com
South Africa’s First National Bank has grown the favourite of the nation’s small transgender minority after it helped out a Burundian female male-born refugee getting a bank account. As a transgender refugee in South Africa, identity problems may often be a big hurdle to overcome.
Any person who wants to open a bank account needs to comply with South Africa’s Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA). This means that proof of residence and/or work address needs to be submitted to the bank of choice. Under normal circumstances this should not be too difficult, except for South Africa’s large number of refugees.
Things get even more complicated for a refugee whose gender is other than the one stated in the ID card. A Burundian citizen, physically born a man but a woman by all other means, has found that it can be hard to live with a double minority status – a refugee and a transgender identity.