Penalties for late birth registrations

The Department of Home Affairs is calling on parents to register their children’s birth on time to avoid paying a penalty fee for late registration.

ome Affairs Deputy Minister Fatima Chohan urged parents to register their children within 30 days of their birth.

Parents who fail to register their children within this period but do so within the first year of birth will have to pay R70 for late registration.

The penalty forms part of the department’s Regulations on the Registration of Births and Deaths that were published in February. The regulations came into effect on 1 March.

Registering children is important for South Africa’s National Population Register. The department has a presence in over 300 hospitals across the country to make it easier for parents to register their children.

“It’s important for the National Population Register at all times to be fairly accurate and reliable, hence the importance of requiring people to register - whether its births, marriages or deaths,” explained Deputy Minister Chohan.

“Every child, in terms of the Constitution, is deserving of citizenship and identity. We found that there is a shift to register children within the first year,” she said.

Updating and strengthening legislation on birth registration was an important step in protecting citizenship, identity and human rights, the Deputy Minister added.

She also called on those who applied for smart card IDs to collect them if they received SMSes saying they were ready, adding that is was possible to receive a smart card ID two days after applying for one.