Pretoria - It was a joyous occasion this week for a six-year-old child who was orphaned at the age of five months when her mother died, when the court, with the help of Lawyers for Human Rights, ordered authorities to issue her with a birth certificate.
The little girl, only known as MJM because of her age, now has both legal status in the country and her great- grandmother and great-grand uncle declared as responsible for her care.
The Tembisa Children’s Court, held at the Tembisa Magistrate’s Court, granted an order for the Department of Home Affairs to register her birth.
The little girl was not only let down by bureaucratic red tape, as it was proved that she was born in a Gauteng hospital, thus by birth a South African citizen, but social workers were unwilling to take on her case and left her in the cold, the court heard.
Meanwhile, family members were desperate to take care of her when they came to know of her plight. While the great grandmother, who is in her 90s, and the uncle, who is elderly, tried everything in their power to obtain a birth certificate for the child so that they could adopt her, they were met by red tape and unwillingness to assist.
Lawyers for Human Rights said what delayed the process of registering the child’s birth with the department was the unwillingness of social workers to be involved in this matter.
This was compounded by Home Affairs’ demand for DNA testing on the elderly relatives to establish that they were related to the child, when there was sufficient proof of where the child was born and of her mother being a South African citizen with a valid South African ID number.
The child was born in the Rahima Moosa Hospital in Johannesburg, but her mother died before she had a chance to register her daughter’s birth. The details or whereabouts of her father and his family are unknown.
Following her mother’s death, she was taken to Tembisa by the elderly relatives. They approached social workers as they wanted to adopt her, but were told this was impossible without a birth certificate.
The great grand uncle said in an affidavit before court that he tried to register the birth with Home Affairs, but the latter said DNA tests had to be done in order to obtain proof of a biological link between himself and MJM before submitting the application for late registration of birth.
He had DNA testing done at the National Health Laboratory Services, but when he returned to fetch the results was told they could not proceed with the DNA analysis as the testing process used was not sensitive enough to determine distant relationships. They said in such a relationship the results would likely show “unrelated”.
He and the great-grandmother, with the help of Lawyers for Human Rights, asked the court to order Home Affairs to issue the birth certificate and to register the child under their names.
“My personal relationship with MJM is that of a daughter and father. I treat her and care for her as my own child. Johannah (great granny) treats MJM as her own child, considering that MJM is her direct great-grandchild,” he said.
The great uncle added that it was only fair and proper that the child had a birth certificate. “MJM lost her mother when she was only five months old and she does not know her father. The fact that her birth has not been registered because she does not have parents to assist with her birth registration should not render her vulnerable and put her at risk of being stateless and invisible,” he said.
Lawyers for Human Rights said this judgment was important as it exposed the vulnerability of orphaned and abandoned children and the unjustified and unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles that children in MJM’s position undergo.
Many abandoned and orphaned children, like MJM, are innocent, vulnerable and they shouldn't be denied their constitutional rights for their parents’ mistakes. “The right to birth registration is a human right and not a privilege or favour,” it said.
Pretoria News