The Department of Home Affairs will over the long weekend offering birth registration services at health facilities throughout the country.
Home Affairs spokesperson Siya Qoza said the registration weekend is held to assist parents to register their children within 30 days of birth, as required by the law.
This is the second weekend that the Department of Home Affairs is celebrating the Human Rights Month by extending services which can help parents and their children to access key government and other services.
“By registering births immediately or within the first 30 days of such births, parents contribute in promoting their children’s human rights. Birth registration marks the beginning of the fulfilment of the constitutional right to citizenship and protects the child’s right to a name and a nationality at birth. Failure to register the child is tantamount to denial of the child’s right to citizenship,” Qoza said.
Qoza said that during the first weekend registration drive on 13 March 2021, 2 060 births were registered.
“Home Affairs officials will be at offices at health facilities from 8am until 3pm daily, on 20 to 22 March 2021.
“We urge everyone who come to register their child to observe social distancing, sanitise their hands regularly and to wear their masks properly, covering their noses and mouths. Nobody will be assisted if they are not wearing their masks properly,” Qoza said.
This year’s Human Rights Day is commemorated under the theme: “The year of Charlotte Maxeke: promoting human rights in the Age of COVID-19”. – SAnews.gov.za
