5 March 2013
Nkosinathi Dludla and his wife Patricia on Monday became the first South African parents to receive an unabridged birth certificate for their new baby boy, Sakhile.
Home Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor visited the young couple at Netcare Park Lane Hospital in Johannesburg to hand them an unabridged birth certificate for their four-day old son.
South Africa’s new birth certificates contain details of both parents along with added security features that will make duplication much more difficult.
Pandor said her department would no longer issue abridged birth certificates, as part of a move to secure the integrity of South Africa’s National Population Register, and to eradicate identity book theft and fraudulent birth registrations.
“This initiative will really give us a chance of having a national population register that we all trust and which we can use for planning service provision,” Pandor said.
“As from today, all [newborn] babies will be receiving unabridged certificates, and our wish is to issue them on the spot, but at the most it will be within 30 days.”
The certificates will be issued at no cost to first-time applicants. Existing abridged certificates will, however, continue to remain legal documents.
Speaking to SAnews at her hospital bed, Patricia Dludla said: “Being the first mother in the country to receive these new birth certificates, it is a real honour to me. I feel so special.”
Pandor also issued an unabridged certificate to Silulami Libalele, whose baby girl, Dala, was born on Saturday.
“Together with my wife, we are very excited by the department’s move to issue this new birth certificate to our baby without us travelling to their offices,” said Libalele, adding that his daughter’s name, Dala, means “to create”.
Source: SAnews.gov.za
