The short answer
You might need legal assistance
The whole question
My partner was born in South Africa but moved to Portugal when he was a year old. He has a South African passport but not the national ID. I, on the other hand, am a foreigner. We currently reside in Cape Town. We are not married, and I am currently pregnant. Once our child is born, we would like to use my partner's surname and he will legally acknowledge the child. Will we be able to register our baby?
The long answer
If your partner has a valid South African passport, he should be able to apply for and get an ID card from the Department of Home Affairs.
But if he acquired the citizenship of another country, he would automatically lose his South African citizenship unless he applied for and got permission to keep his South African citizenship before acquiring the citizenship of the new country. A South African citizen can hold dual citizenship, but again only if he applied and got permission to keep his South African citizenship first.
In terms of registering the baby’s birth:
All children must be registered within 30 days of their birth under the Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1992. The parent or parents must complete Form B1-24 in black ink at their nearest Home Affairs office and submit it. The parent/s must bring their ID/s, and if they are married, a marriage certificate. If the parents are married, the child is given the father’s surname. If they are not married they can choose either the mother’s or father’s surname. The parents are then given an unabridged birth certificate which contains the child’s legal name, their date of birth and their place of birth and its parents’ names. This is then included in the National Population Register. You need an unabridged birth certificate to travel out of the country with the child.
As Home Affairs would often refuse to register the births of children when one parent was an immigrant, a case was brought to the Eastern Cape High Court in 2018 (Naki versus Director General Home Affairs). The court had to decide whether the Births and Deaths Registration Act (BDRA) allowed the father to register a child in the case of a mother being absent or not having legal permission to be in the country. It decided that the BDRA did not allow a father to register the birth of a child in those circumstances; it was therefore unconstitutional as all children born in South Africa have a right to have their births registered.
The court also found that Regulation 12 (1) of the Births and Deaths Registration Act (BDRA) which provided for an unmarried mother to register a child’s birth prevented an unmarried father from registering the birth of a child, which was also unconstitutional.
So it “read into” the regulations the words “or father” to ensure that either a mother or father could register the birth of their child if they were unmarried.
This court decision means that it’s easier now to register the birth of children where one parent is South African and the other parent is an immigrant, because Home Affairs may not refuse to register a child’s birth on the grounds of the legal status of its parents.
Although the court order was in 2018, Home Affairs often takes a very long time to comply with court orders and you may find some Home Affairs officials still refusing to register births of children in the circumstances described above. If you run into that kind of trouble you may want to consult the following organisations for advice

“Portugal’s Travel & Tourism Sector Enters Golden Era.” “Travel & Tourism in Poland Set to Surpass Economic Records.” “France Set to Maintain Unmatched 2024 Growth in Travel & Tourism.” The World Travel and Tourism Council’s news and press release page is chock full of articles highlighting one fact: the world’s most visited destinations are overwhelmed with tourists, and the postpandemic tourism boom doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

Global travel was already swelling in 2024, when international travel reached 99% of its prepandemic levels, according to UN Tourism’s World Tourism Barometer. In the first quarter of 2025, international tourist arrivals increased by 5% compared to the first quarter of 2024 and 3% compared to the first quarter of 2019.

This surge of vacationers is in part due to “revenge travel”: people are going on the long-awaited trips they weren’t able to take during the pandemic. Partly as a result, popular sites and vacationing spots are facing an influx of tourists.

Tourists enjoy the beach along the “Promenade des Anglais” on the French riviera city of Nice, on July 14, 2025. In 2024, the travel and tourism sector’s contribution to France’s national GDP was 10.1% above 2019 levels, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Tourists stroll through Park Guell in Barcelona on July 6, 2025. Barcelona received 15.5 million domestic and international tourists in 2024, resulting in a ratio of 10 tourists per every resident according to Wellness Retreats Magazine.

Tourists crowd onto a passenger boat in Venice on June 9, 2025. In April, Venice enacted a five-euro fee for tourists entering the city for a day trip during the summer.

People and tourists photograph the Olympic flame cauldron near the Arc de Triomphe before the Olympic Games in Paris on Aug. 7, 2024. Last year, France saw 100 million foreign tourists, outnumbering the country’s 66 million-person population, according to the Associated Press.

One of the countries most challenged by the flood of tourist traffic is Spain, which welcomed about 94 million foreign visitors in 2024—about double the country’s entire population of 49 million. The barrage of foreign tourists is making destinations busier and prices more expensive, and locals as well as domestic tourists are getting pushed out of their own regions.

For Spain’s 25 most popular coastal destinations, where hotel prices have risen 23% in the past three years, foreign tourism rose last year by 1.94 million people while local tourism dropped by 800,000. In contrast, about 1.7 million more Spaniards vacationed inland to more affordable areas last year compared to the year before.

But locals aren’t relinquishing their hometowns and regional vacation destinations easily. In Barcelona, which has a population of 1.7 million and saw 15.5 million domestic and foreign visitors last year, protesters took to the streets this year and last to splash tourists with water guns.

In Paris, staff at the Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum, went on strike in June, protesting the crowds, the lack of staffing, and the working conditions. The museum currently caps daily visitors at 30,000, which brings the maximum yearly attendance to 9.3 million—about 5 million more than the Louvre was designed to receive.

People photograph a passenger train passing through the Mae Klong Railway Market in Samut Songkhram, a little over 50 miles from Bangkok. International arrivals to Thailand are expected to grow 5% from last year, breaking previous records, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Tourists crowd the streets near the Ponte di Rialto on March 1, 2025 in Venice. Venice’s population has dropped from about 175,000 in the 1970s to below 50,000 last year, while the number of tourists passing through the city has continued to increase.

Tourists sit on a public bench at Plaza Mayor in downtown Madrid on April 29, 2024. The World Travel and Tourism Council predicts that the travel and tourism sector will account for 3.2 million jobs in Spain.

A tourist takes a picture of a wild deer on March 10, 2025, in Nara, Japan. Public trash cans have been installed in Nara Park, a popular tourist destination, to protect deer from the effects of overtourism. In 1985, trash cans were removed from the park because deer were accidentally eating out of them, but in recent years, littering—and the number of foreign tourists—has risen, according to The Japan Times.

While locals are protesting overtourism, governments are trying to satiate their constituents without losing the economic boost that tourism provides. On a global scale, travel and tourism represented 10% of the global economy in 2024. Travel and tourism in Spain is expected to make up 16%, or $303.3 billion, of the country’s national economy, and the same sector in France is expected to make up 9.3%, or $319.2 billion, of its output.

In trying to appease both sides, the government of Italy imposed a five-euro (almost $6) tax last year to tourists traveling into the city in an attempt to mitigate tourism at the UNESCO World Heritage Site. The fee, implemented in April, is applicable only to day trips, not longer visits, and is in effect for only 54 days of this year’s peak tourism season. Residents of Venice, whose population has shrunk from about 175,000 in the 1970s to below 50,000 last year, said that the entrance fee turned their city into an amusement park and will not do much to discourage tourists.

Governments are also tightening regulations on short-term vacation rentals, specifically Airbnb, which limit the housing supply and therefore increase residential housing prices. The vacation rental company, which denies it has a role in hiking housing prices, is currently appealing a decision to take down around 66,000 properties in Spain that violate local rules. London and Paris, too, have capped the number of nights a property can be rented a year to 90 days.

Tourists take photos of the French impressionist painter Claude Monet’s garden in Giverny, France, on July 16, 2025, where he painted his iconic “Water Lilies.” The World Travel and Tourism Council predicts that international spending will rise to $87.3 billion in 2025.

Tourists crowd in front of the barriers of the Trevi Fountain on Oct. 10, 2024, in Rome. A new walkway was being installed at the time, which will offer the opportunity to acquire new data on attendance, useful for solving the overcrowding problems of the monument.

People wait in line in front of the Louvre in Paris on June 16, 2025. The museum’s employees went on a spontaneous strike that day in protest of the crowds, the lack of staffing, and the working conditions, leaving tourists out in the sun.

A group of tourists wearing portable tour guide systems walk through Athens, Greece, on July 16, 2025. Athens saw about 7.9 million domestic and foreign tourists in 2024, according to Wellness Retreats Magazine.

Western Cape MEC for Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism, Ivan Meyer.
Canada has signalled a strong commitment to boosting investment and deepening economic ties with the Western Cape.
This follows a high-level meeting held in Cape Town between Canada’s Minister of Finance, François-Philippe Champagne, and Western Cape MEC for Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism, Ivan Meyer.

“The door is open to the Western Cape for Canada to boost investment,” was the key message emerging from the meeting, as both parties reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening trade, tourism, and bilateral investment between the province and the North American nation.
Meyer highlighted the importance of the Western Cape’s role in South Africa’s trade with Canada.
“In 2023, South Africa’s exports to Canada were valued at R8.28 billion,” he said.

“Citrus fruit, both fresh and dried, was the leading export category, accounting for R1.69 billion or 20.42% of the total export value.”
The Western Cape itself contributed R3.04 billion to those exports. Its top product, citrus fruit, generated R1.02 billion in revenue, making up over a third (33.64%) of the province’s total exports to Canada.

Meanwhile, imports from Canada to the province also rose significantly, growing by 13.93% year-on-year to R0.84 billion.
Bilateral investment trends were another focus of the discussion.

Between January 2014 and May 2024, Canadian companies invested in 26 projects in South Africa, contributing a total of R15.57 billion in capital expenditure.
South African firms also made their mark in Canada, with 13 projects worth R3.68 billion over the same period.
The rebound in tourism was equally encouraging.

“In 2023, South Africa welcomed 55 056 Canadian tourists, a 55.08% increase compared with 2022 and 82.70% of pre-pandemic (2019) levels,” said Meyer.
“The Western Cape alone received over 28 650 Canadian visitors, surpassing 2019 figures by 17.60% and reflecting a year-on-year growth of 59.59%.”
This positive momentum in tourism and trade is expected to continue with high-level engagements and international events on the horizon.
“We are also looking forward to welcoming François Legault, the Premier of the Canadian Province of Quebec, to Cape Town later this year as a member of the Regional Leaders Summit,” Meyer said.

The summit includes global regional partners such as Quebec (Canada), Georgia (US), São Paulo (Brazil), Upper Austria (Austria), Bavaria (Germany), Shandong (China), and the Western Cape (South Africa).

In a move to further bolster ties, a delegation from Wesgro, Western Cape’s official tourism, trade, and investment promotion agency, will undertake a trade mission to Canada this September and attend the Vancouver Wine Show in 2026.

“These figures reflect the growing strength of our economic, investment, and tourism ties with Canada,” Meyer said.
“We are committed to deepening this relationship for the benefit of both regions.”

Naomi Campbell and her mentor on the deck of Jan and Karin Viviers’ home in Kayamandi, Stellenbosch. The view includes a perspective towards Helshoogte Pass, which we were to explore the next day.

Dinner on a township deck, lunch in a house in a place you’ve always driven past. Sometimes it’s worth ignoring the destination and stopping along the way instead.

From the deck of a house in Kayamandi, the view couldn’t be more splendid if you paid a gazillion bucks for it. A white couple living in a township, the people who live here know something most people within their extraordinary view don’t know: their outlook is significantly better than most.
This is something I’ve often wondered about when driving past humble homes throughout the country, often on hillsides with views to infinity, and then I think: I could be happy living there.

The evening US intern Naomi Campbell and I spent in Jan and Karin Viviers’ home was such an eye-opener that I cannot get it out of my head. All around their house, which is set fairly high on a hillside in what was once a forest, are homes of many kinds, from middle-class brick houses to double-storey well-to-do homes, “hop huise” and backyarders’ shacks. Snaking through the streets to get there and back gives you a close-up view of township life.
On their deck, Jan has his beautiful fire engine-red braai at full tilt, ready for the surf and turf supper he’s prepared to please disparate palates. Naomi won’t be touching the bone marrow, which I’ve never seen done on a braai before, but why not… (makes a mental note).

Cheers to the sunset and to new friendships, with the view towards Helshoogte beyond. (Photo: Karin Viviers)
This high-flying lawyer and his wife Karin, who runs six foster homes in Kayamandi and nearby Cloetesville, have lived in the township since 1998. In 2010, Jan was instrumental in establishing Amazink, the nearby dinner theatre operation of which Bertus Basson played a key role. He and Karin both have twinkling humour, Karin’s shy wit contrasted with Jan’s sense of mischief. He’s quite the cook, turning out a tantalising starter of marinated tuna, full of spikes of lively flavour.

We revelled in the astonishing view as the full moon rose over the mountains beyond. Helshoogte snaked up the far mountainside and Jan pointed to the spot where a big estate is set to be built, and we all sighed.
Kayamandi is only a few minutes drive into central Stellenbosch, and only a few minutes later you can be turning onto Helshoogte towards Franschhoek. Which I did, the next day. And on your right, midway between these two flagship winelands towns, is a place I’d never noticed before. Right there, ignored by the shiny cars whizzing by. Kylemore. Blink and you miss it.

We’d been here earlier in the day for lunch with “Tannie” Siena Charles, a smiling matriarch beloved of the entire community. Tannie Siena loves everybody and has made a life out of doing kind things for the people around her. Our US intern Naomi Campbell has written about her. Before lunch in Kylemore, we’d been to the Banhoek Chilli Oil Company,

But now the day is done and it’s time for me to check into a Kylemore guest house called Staymore, which has been arranged for me by Visit Stellenbosch, who organised our local itinerary for my stay there to introduce Naomi to Daily Maverick and me to the CoCreate Hub where she was based for her first weeks in South Africa.

Lecelin Roberts and husband Antonio (whom I did not meet) are born-and-bred Kylemore people, which means that they, like their compatriots in this humble village, have lived close to Franschhoek and Stellenbosch without quite being part of either. It strikes me that this valley, which is often seen as just a drive between those two towns, is in fact a place of its own. It’s salted-and-peppered with highflying names like Tokara and Delaire Graff, Thelema and Miles Mossop wines, yet Kylemore manages to retain its quiet self-respect. I was really taken with the place.

Lecelin told me that she and Antonio opened the guest house in June 2019 in what was their family home.

“When we received a booking we would pack everything up and go and stay somewhere else,” she laughed. “It was self-catering, then last August changed to a bed and breakfast. It was a good decision because now we get to interact with our guests.”

There are four spacious bedrooms, with mine facing a lovely garden and wide stoep. It was the perfect spot for staying over when you have a dinner appointment with Naomi Campbell at Le Pommier restaurant, which earlier Tannie Siena had pronounced “La Pom-mier” in the Afrikaans way, to rhyme with vuur or muur. I think I blushed at the thought that I’d pronounced it Le Pom-meeyay earlier, which suddenly felt horrendously pretentious. So later on, before saying goodbye, I whispered to Tannie Siena, “Ons is La PomMIER toe vanaand vir aandete.” And a wink. And she laughed her throaty, wicked laugh.

At Le PomMIER, we’re welcomed like royalty. For a minute I thought, oh hell, they think it’s THAT Naomi Campbell, but I blushed (again) when it dawned on me that they were excited that I was visiting. Naomi insisted on taking this photo:

Le Pommier is a good local bistro. This is — in case you presume that I expect everything to be in the league of La Colombe or Salsify — the kind of restaurant I’m most comfortable in, where the food is reliably as good as it is recognisable and you know it gets busy, and stays busy, because that’s what the locals want. If I lived in Kylemore (and the thought did cross my mind) I’d be here twice a week.

The evening passed in a world of conversation between intern and mentor as I tried to be as useful as possible while she asked question after question in her eagerness to squeeze everything she could out of her trip to this faraway land.
The ‘Banhoek trio’ of bobotie, chicken pie and oxtail in red wine. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

We relished the simple salt and pepper calamari and pan-fried haloumi, after which I got stuck into the “Banhoek trio” of miniature portions of bobotie, chicken pie and oxtail in red wine. The generous portion of malva pudding that followed was smothered in homemade custard.
For breakfast the next morning, Lecelin was in the kitchen herself, cooking up a lovely plate of eggs and bacon and tomato and, to go with the crisp toast, the most exquisite peach jam I’ve ever eaten.

Lecelin told me it was made by Caroline Keet, a 92-year-old woman in the community. How’s that for local is lekker — and better