The DA notes with concern the announcement made by the Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, that as at the end of December next year all parents of children not registered within 30 days of their birth will have to undergo a stringent process to ascertain the child’s identity, including appearing before a committee to give evidence.
As such, I will be making submissions to the Minister outlining why this proposal will not work and why it will essentially undermine his department’s efforts to make child registration easier.
This comes after Minister Gigaba announced that parents who register their child’s birth beyond 30 days of the child’s birthdate will have to endure an “agonising” screening process to verify their child’s identity before they will be granted a birth certificate.
This announcement appears to be a development on the announcement made by the Minister in his budget speech that parents will be fined for not registering their children within 30 days of their birthdate.
The Minister’s announcement is bizarre given that a recent reply to a DA parliamentary question revealed that only 159 of the 389 online child registration systems available at healthcare institutions are fully functional.
The Minister would do well to direct his efforts towards making sure that healthcare institutions have the necessary, fully functional equipment to make child registration easier rather than making it difficult for parents by imposing penalties for a system that is woefully failing at the Minister’s hands and not as a result of the parents.
This proposal doesn’t take into consideration the hospitalisation of mothers beyond 30 days after giving birth due to child birth complications or mothers in rural areas who do not have easy access to registrations points.
The DA therefore calls on Minister Gigaba to provide clarity on the following:
- What this “agonising” process will entail;
- Whether the Department is going to conduct regulatory impact assessments of these processes;
- Who will serve on the proposed birth registration committees and how these committee members will be selected; and
- How much this process will cost the taxpayer?
Last month the Minister announced that the Department of Home Affairs was going to halt the implementation of regulations pertaining to unabridged birth certificates until a full regulatory impact assessment was conducted. The DA contends that Minister Gigaba must apply the same compromise to this latest proposal.
The Minister must not seek to implement new regulations and processes, while the systems of his Department remain broken.
Statement issued by Haniff Hoosen MP, DA Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, October 8 2014
Minister Gigaba proposal for birth registration is counterproductive – South Africa
The DA notes with concern the announcement made by the Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, that as at the end of December next year all parents of children not registered within 30 days of their birth will have to undergo a stringent process to ascertain the child’s identity, including appearing before a committee to give evidence.
As such, I will be making submissions to the Minister outlining why this proposal will not work and why it will essentially undermine his department’s efforts to make child registration easier.
This comes after Minister Gigaba announced that parents who register their child’s birth beyond 30 days of the child’s birthdate will have to endure an “agonising” screening process to verify their child’s identity before they will be granted a birth certificate.
This announcement appears to be a development on the announcement made by the Minister in his budget speech that parents will be fined for not registering their children within 30 days of their birthdate.
The Minister’s announcement is bizarre given that a recent reply to a DA parliamentary question revealed that only 159 of the 389 online child registration systems available at healthcare institutions are fully functional.
The Minister would do well to direct his efforts towards making sure that healthcare institutions have the necessary, fully functional equipment to make child registration easier rather than making it difficult for parents by imposing penalties for a system that is woefully failing at the Minister’s hands and not as a result of the parents.
This proposal doesn’t take into consideration the hospitalisation of mothers beyond 30 days after giving birth due to child birth complications or mothers in rural areas who do not have easy access to registrations points.
The DA therefore calls on Minister Gigaba to provide clarity on the following:
Last month the Minister announced that the Department of Home Affairs was going to halt the implementation of regulations pertaining to unabridged birth certificates until a full regulatory impact assessment was conducted. The DA contends that Minister Gigaba must apply the same compromise to this latest proposal.
The Minister must not seek to implement new regulations and processes, while the systems of his Department remain broken.
Statement issued by Haniff Hoosen MP, DA Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, October 8 2014
Relocation Africa celebrated its 21st Anniversary in 2014 – South Africa
UK citizens, traveling on diplomatic and official passports must now apply for visas to visit SA. – South Africa
Pretoria – Holders of British diplomatic and official passports must apply for visas before travelling to South Africa, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Thursday.
“As from 1 September 2014, the department began implementing the visa requirements for British diplomatic and official passport holders. This was reciprocal action on our part,” he told reporters in Pretoria.
“Ordinary passport holders such as tourists will remain unaffected by this new requirement. The British government, in 2010, announced visa requirements for all South Africans – ordinary, official, and diplomatic.”
He said Pretoria had tried in vain to “persuade” London officials to at least exempt officials when they visited the country.
“We therefore decided that we would reciprocate as is an international principle. We still have exempted the ordinary passport holders of Britain,” he said.
British officials, if they want to travel to Pretoria, are now required to approach the South African mission.
“They are required to present themselves at the South African High Commission in London. Like everybody else they must apply in person and we will interview them. We will grant them a visa if we deem it necessary.
“Visiting South Africa is not a foreigner’s right [but] a privilege granted to a foreigner by the South African government depending on whether we are satisfied about the purpose of your visit,” said Gigaba.
He said government had been “lenient” on British officials because their visa applications were free of charge.
South Africa hoped to engage further with the British government on the visa debacle in the hope of reciprocal scrapping of visa requirements.
“We would like a situation where the British would heed our request for them to re-introduce a visa exemption for South Africans but we are certainly not on our knees,” said Gigaba.
Adopting Lentili – our newest family member
In June, one of our Account Managers travelled to Kenya and visited the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
We adopted a baby elephant!
At the heart of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s conservation activities is the Orphans’ Project, which has achieved world-wide acclaim through its hugely successful elephant and rhino rescue and rehabilitation program. The Orphans’ Project exists to offer hope for the future of Kenya’s threatened elephant and rhino populations as they struggle against the threat of poaching for their ivory and horn, and the loss of habitat due to human population pressures and conflict, deforestation and drought.
To date the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust has successfully hand-raised over 150 infant elephants and has accomplished its long-term conservation priority by effectively reintegrating orphans back into the wild herds of Tsavo, claiming many healthy wild-born calves from former-orphaned elephants raised in our care.
Here are some of Lentili’s details. We will be keeping you updated on her progress at the orphanage.
On October 5th Ol Lentille Rangers on routine patrol sighted an abandoned baby elephant calf, estimated to be 18 months old. There were no other elephants in the area, and the fate of her mother remained unclear. The Rangers were posted on 24 hour follow-and-observe duty.