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South Africa: Parents Urged to Register Children's Birth Early

Source: SA Gov news, 05/12/2015

Pretoria — Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has urged parents to
register the birth of their children within 30 days.

"From 1 January 2016, registering births after 30 days will be more
costly, and more onerous.

"Make it easy for yourself. Register your child's birth immediately,
before leaving the hospital, or within 30 days at a Home Affairs
office," said the Minister at the Birth Registration Indaba currently
underway in Durban.

A birth certificate is free within the first 30 days.

"The fee is to deter people from being unnecessarily lax and to
contribute to the costs associated with the additional checks and
verification, which will be conducted," said the Minister.

Parents are also encouraged to apply for birth certificates online at
389 health facilities across the country.

"We now have online birth registration at 389 health facilities in the
country, and we are encouraging our people to utilize them," the
Minister said.

All parents need to do when applying for their children's birth
certificates is to bring their IDs with them.

In 2010, President Jacob Zuma signed the Birth and Death Registration
Amendment Act into law. Home Affairs started issuing unabridged
certificates for new born babies from 4 March 2013 on the spot and at
no cost.

According to the department, the unabridged certificate is more secure
and reliable with added information as it contains particulars of both
parents, where possible, and their ID numbers and therefore supports
the drive to secure the National Population Register so that all
people in the country are and feel safe.

For children born before March 2013, parents need to apply for
unabridged birth certificates to replace the old abridged birth
certificate that contained only the name and ID number of the new born
baby and the mother. The application fee is R75 for this category and
the process takes about six weeks.

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