The Department of Home Affairs will be offering birth registration services this Human Rights Day weekend at health facilities nationwide.
The registration weekend is held to assist parents to register their children within 30 days of birth as is 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.
This year’s Human Rights Day will be commemorated this Sunday under the theme: “The year of Charlotte Maxeke: promoting human rights in the Age of COVID-19”.
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.
During the first weekend registration drive on 13 March 2021, there were 2 060 births registered.
Home Affairs officials will be at offices at health facilities from 08:00 until 15:00 daily, on 20 to 22 March 2021.
We urge everyone who comes 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.