Deputy Home Affairs Minister Fatima Chohan will on Friday 31 December 2010 visit mothers of babies born on New Year’s Eve as well as those born in the early hours of 1 January 2011, during which she will issue the babies with birth certificates to mark their arrival into this world.
Deputy Minister Chohan’s visit to the new born babies comes within the context of the department’s drive to secure the country’s population register through, amongst others, the registration of babies at birth.
In this regard, during visits to the Durbanville Medi-Clinic and Khayelitsha Site B Maternity Clinic in Cape Town, Deputy Minister Chohan will encourage mothers to register their babies within 30 days of birth, as part of the national effort to ensure that birth is the only entry point to the country’s national population register.
The campaign was launched by President Zuma and Home Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma in Libode, Eastern Cape in March this year.
With a view to supporting the registration of babies within 30 days of birth and ideally even before mother’s leave hospital with their babies, 314 health facilities have been connected to the Department of Home Affairs with 169 being able to perform the online registration of births and 145 performing manual collections. It is anticipated that this number will increase in 2011.
With one entry point into the population register, at birth, the department can succeed in its quest to eliminate fraud and corruption related to the production of identity documents, including identity theft. To meeting this objective, babies are now issued with birth certificates that contain their identity numbers in addition to the names of their mothers.
The department is also striving towards a situation where all those who turn 16 years of age can be timeously issued with identity documents.
A secure and credible National Population Register will assist the government in order to plan adequately to fulfil its social contract with the citizenry of the country as well as safeguard all those within its borders.
Media are invited as follows:
Date: Friday, 31 December 2010
Time: 22h30 (Hospital one)
Venue: Durbanville Medi-Clinic, Cape Town
Hospital two
Time: 23h30
Venue: Khayelitsha Site B Maternity Clinic, Khayelitsha, Cape Town
RSVPs:
Manusha Pillai
Cell: 082 389 3587
E-mail:manusha@gcis.gov.za
Enquiries:
Ronnie Mamoepa
Cell: 082 990 4853
Home Affairs Deputy Minister to issue New Year's babies with birth certificates
