South Africa: Record child’s birth, state told
Published: 29/Apr/2023
Source: Saturday Star (Johannesburg)
By ZELDA VENTER
WITH the intervention of the court, a boy born nearly four years ago will, for the first time, officially have a name and legal standing in South Africa after red tape has denied him of this right up to now.
The parents of the child – who are not identified as he is a minor – did everything asked of them by the Department of Home Affairs to register the birth of their child. They even underwent a compulsory paternity test. Yet, they received no help in their desperate bid for their child to have an identity.
The parents have been in a permanent relationship since August 2009 and moved in together at the end of 2016. While discussing marriage, they elected to wait until after the child’s birth to start the lobola negotiations.
When the child was born in September 2019, the parents agreed that the child would have the father’s surname. Within 30 days of the birth, they completed the birth form.
This was the start of their bureaucratic nighmare as they were told by Home Affairs that they needed a paternity test as the child was born out of wedlock and the father was Zimbabwean.
Read further: https://thestar.pressreader.com/article/281672554262148