Cape Town - From January 1, 2016, the late registration of births, after the one-month cut-off period, would trigger “a rigorous process” to ensure the newborn child was a South African, according to the Department of Home Affairs.
This comes as the department aims to better the 60 percent compliance rate of registering newborns within 30 days after birth, as part of a drive to ensure the integrity of the national population register and combat fraud and corruption.
Speaking ahead of his budget vote on Wednesday, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba declined to outline exactly what such a rigorous process would entail, but said: “It will not be so frustrating, but it will be rigorous enough for a non-South African to try take a chance”.
Late registration of births carried “enormous risks” as non-South Africans asked traditional leaders, priests and even councillors to write to the department “claiming legitimate South African citizenry”.
“We have 60 percent compliance. We want the other 40 percent... Reasons for non-compliance must be extraordinary,” the minister added, quipping that if there were concerns about naming a child before birth a goat should be sent as emissary to the ancestors as “things have changed from your days”.
Speaking in the wake of last month’s xenophobic violence, in the aftermath of which government acknowledged domestic concerns like foreign nationals competing for jobs and working for a pittance, Gigaba said R118 million would be spent on inspectors to ensure companies complied with legislative requirements.
Confirming 3 700 foreign nationals voluntarily repatriated to their home countries following the violence, which left seven dead, it also emerged that the current backlog of applications for refugee and asylum seeker status stood at less than 100 000.
Gigaba said the proposed new border management agency to “drastically improve” controls at ports of entry was expected to get off the ground by 2017. The required draft legislation was expected to go to cabinet for approval this year, and it was hoped Parliament would adopt it in 2016. As this process unfolded, Home Affairs was moving to upgrade, or completely renew, infrastructure at border crossings.
Among the department’s other modernisation plans are online applications for IDs and passports and using Home Affairs officials at banks to take biometric data from applications.
Political Bureau