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DNA testing for birth registration is a hoax – home affairs

Source: The Citizen, 19/09/2016

Tshwete said no such interview was conducted by the minister with what
appears to be a fake website.

An article circulating on social media where Home Affairs Minister
Malusi Gigaba allegedly speaks on the introduction of compulsory DNA
testing for registration of new births is a hoax, Home Affairs
spokesperson Mayihlome Tshwete said.

Tshwete said no such interview was conducted by the minister with what
appears to be a fake website.

"The department will utilise official communication platforms to
create awareness around any changes in policy should there be such
pronouncements, including those made by the ministry."

In 2014, the new births and deaths regulations were announced. Tshwete
said there were cases where a single mother would be in a relationship
with a non-South African male and approach Home Affairs to record that
man as the child`s biological father, even though they were
not.

"This is then used by such persons to address our department for
permanent residence status in the country due to the right that
children have to be cared for by their parents."

Such cases require the results of paternity tests and only applicable
to non-South Africans.

Should a third party want to substitute his particulars as the father
of a child, and to effectively remove the recorded father`s name in
the birth certificate, the regulations will require a paternity test
to be submitted by the applicant.

"In instances where the parents of a child born out of wedlock are
both recorded in the system but their status is unmarried and recorded
as such, upon marriage, and if they wish to change their marital
status on the child`s profile, the law provides that this may be done
without a requirement of a paternity test."

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