René Stegmann

Will the ‘I dos’ wane as registers dry up 2016-09-11 06:03

Sisipho Zamxaka

Bride and groom standing in a courtyard after the wedding.

Bride and groom standing in a courtyard after the wedding.

Couples planning to get married this spring may be forced to postpone their wedding ceremonies, as the department of home affairs is experiencing a countrywide shortage of marriage registers.

Since May 2016, marriage officers in private practice have reportedly not received the documents from the department, and they are fuming.

City Press has seen several correspondences between marriage officers and the director of births, marriages, deaths and records management at the department of home affairs, Aaron Ramodumo, in which a majority appealed unsuccessfully to get new copies of marriage registers from the department.

A Pretoria-based marriage officer, Jaco Venter, said he had not received new marriage registers for three months.

“We have a shortage of marriage registers in the country and very little is being done about it.

“Our biggest frustration is inconsistency in the different offices. You’ll find five different opinions regarding regulations, rules and laws within one office.

“No one knows what is going on. Each one has his or her own interpretation of what is right or not,” complained Venter.

Ramodumo confessed in several emails sent to complaining marriage officers: “It is true that we are dealing with some internal matters relating to the acquisition of marriage registers. The chief director … has pleaded with supply chain to speed up the process. I remain hopeful that we will get the registers soon.”

“I only have six marriage registers left,” said Venter.

In another email to a desperate marriage officer, who asked not to be named for fear of victimisation, Ramodumo wrote: “I am aware we are still to do stock taking; we are very soon going to crash, as there is a desperate need for DHA-30 forms [marriage registers] (sic).”

However, the department insisted that there was no crisis, saying there were more marriage registers than needed.

“It’s a question of provincial managers not allocating registers to specific offices,” said the department’s spokesperson, Mayihlome Tshwete.

René Stegmann

Father takes Home Affairs to court after fighting to register son’s birth for five years

KATHARINE CHILD | 12 September, 2016 07:05

Image by: Gallo Images/Thinkstock

In the eyes of the state Vusi*, 7, doesn’t exist. He has no birth certificate or ID number.

For the past five years his father has tried to register his birth with the Department of Home Affairs and now – with the Centre for Child Law – he and his son have approached the courts.

They are asking the Pretoria High Court to declare sections of the Birth and Deaths Registration Act that discriminate against single, unmarried fathers as unconstitutional and “invalid”.

At present unmarried men cannot register their children’s birth and obtain their ID number without a mother’s consent, according to section 12 of the law.

Vusi was born in Eastern Cape in 2009 but his mother left him and his dad two years later and disappeared.

Vusi’s father, who cannot be named to protect Vusi’s identity, has been unable to trace her.

When he visits the department to get a birth certificate for his son, the officials ask for documents from his mother.

The lack of a birth certificate has “dire consequences” for the child, say the court papers. These include the denial of many constitutional rights, such as the right to an identity, a nationality, a child grant, healthcare and education.

Vusi’s father has indicated a child grant would help Vusi but he cannot access it without the boy’s birth certificate.

The Centre for Child Law, Vusi and his dad now want the law modified to allow single unwed fathers to register their child’s birth without needing the mother’s permission.

Single, unwed mothers do not need a father’s permission to register their child’s birth and get an ID number.

Vusi’s father has tried to resolve the issue without turning to the courts. Last year he took a letter from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Home Affairs explaining that he was the sole caregiver of the child and that the mother could not be traced.

But that did not make any “difference”, read the court papers.

The Centre for Child Law was contacted by a senior Home Affairs official a year ago who promised she would instruct a staff member to give Vusi an ID number and a birth certificate.

But more than a year later nothing has happened.

Out of desperation the three filed legal papers in January asking the court to ensure Vusi got an identity document and that no other children faced similar battles.

Home Affairs did not reply to court papers, as legally required.

Desperate for a response, the Centre for Child Law called a meeting with a judge earlier this year.

The judge ordered the department to file its first set of legal papers by August. This has not happened.

The Department of Home Affairs did not respond to requests for comment.

If you need assistance with registration of birth, unabridged birth certificates contact us info@relocationafrica.com or 021 7634240.

René Stegmann
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Detention of nine Zim nationals lawful, says home affairs

Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba inspects the automated booking system at Marabastad refugee reception office in Tshwane. Picture: Nigel Sibanda

Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba inspects the automated booking system at Marabastad refugee reception office in Tshwane. Picture: Nigel Sibanda

The Zimbabwean nationals had to be detained for the department of home affairs to obtain documents to deport them.

The detention of nine Zimbabweans who were returning to their home country in a minibus taxi last month was lawful, as they were undocumented, the department of home affairs has said.

The nine “illegal foreigners”, arrested on August 21, are being held in De Aar, in the Northern Cape. They were told they would be kept for up to three months and then transferred to Lindela Repatriation Centre in Gauteng.

Home affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni said yesterday the Zimbabweans had to be arrested in order to obtain documents to deport them.

“We must first go to the embassy of the country they claim to come from and the Zimbabwean government has to give us a certificate confirming they are nationals of the country.

“Their country of origin needs to issue a one-way document for them to cross the border.

“One cannot leave the country without those documents,” he told The Citizen on the sidelines of Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba’s tour of the Marabastad refugee reception office in Pretoria.

The nine Zimbabweans have been held at Hanover Police Station in the Northern Cape for the past three weeks. Apleni said the length of their stay there depended on how long it took to process the documents.

“Unfortunately, there is no Zimbabwean embassy or consulate in the Northern Cape, they are only in Gauteng and Cape Town.

“Embassy [staff] will need to go to De Aar to identify all nine of their citizens to confirm that they are indeed from Zimbabwe.

“We can’t allow them to go to Zimbabwe without being assured that they are indeed from there.” Apleni said.

He said the nine could be taken to Lindela Repatriation Centre in the interim to “protect” them.

“Lindela is operating well and the Human Rights Commission has an office space to work from there.

“As the department, we inspect the centre often. It can accommodate a maximum of 3 500 foreigners at a time.” he said.

Meanwhile, Gigaba’s visit to the Marabastad Refugee reception office was to assess progress on renovations and the implementation of a new paperless system.

The new system operates from an automated asylum-seeker kiosk that captures refugees’ fingerprints and books an appointment for them with the department of home affairs.

The system will be fully operational by November and will stop corruption, Gigaba said.

“Anyone who enters the centre will enter on the basis of the online booking, meaning their fingerprints have been captured.

“The applicant will be provided with a date and time of interview and capturing of data. If they do not have their fingerprints captured, they will not be able to access the centre.

“This will avoid corruption and bribery, as they won’t have access to officials,” said Gigaba.

The paperless system would be rolled out throughout the country and at border posts over the next five years.

Rorisang Kgosana– rorisangk@citizen.co.za

René Stegmann

“You died in 2015,” Home Affairs tells uMgeni Park man

The 66-year-old was told he died of natural causes in Sasolburg.

uMgeni Park resident, Jan Meyer, holds up an abridged copy of his death certificate. He was declared dead by the Department of Home Affairs last year.

uMgeni Park resident, Jan Meyer, holds up an abridged copy of his death certificate. He was declared dead by the Department of Home Affairs last year.

AN uMgeni Park resident says he is at his wits end trying to prove he is not dead. Jan Meyer, 66, was declared dead in 2015 by the Department of Home Affairs. The Browns Drift Road resident said that his life has come to a standstill since he was informed by the department’s offices in Umgeni Road when he was applying for a new ID, that he was “deceased”.

“I had gone to the department’s offices to renew my ID but when I got there, I got the fright of my life when the officials informed me that according to their records, I’m deceased. Apparently I died in Sasolburg, I’ve never been to the place. Now I’ve got a death certificate. It has been over a year now and I am being sent from pillar to post to resolve the matter. I’ve completed several documents, received affidavits, and still nothing has been down. Now, the records are also showing my wife is a widower.

“I’m so angry and frustrated, but what makes this worse, is nobody is that taking responsibility. I was interviewed on TV not too long ago and I was assured by the Minister of Home Affairs that the issue would be sorted, a year later and still nothing has been rectified. I also cannot claim annuities from my insurance. Last year, I had to write an affidavit before one of them paid me out, however this year, once again, they have halted the payments saying I was dead,” he said.

Earlier this year Meyer visited his children in Namibia and had problems crossing the border.

“I have virtually no rights. My biggest fear is if I do die, what happens to my wife. No one seems to care enough to set the record straight. Earlier this year, I was humiliated at my voting station because the record reflected I was dead. I couldn’t even vote. No one can tell me it may have been an error at the capturing stage or a duplication because of the same names. There are promises of investigation, but no one does anything. I’m so stressed by this, I just want things to be okay again,” he said.