Chairperson and hon members, I am indeed privileged to introduce the Births and Deaths Registration Amendment Bill for the consideration of this House. Let me again thank the portfolio committee and its chair for their hard work and co-operation.
It is only correct that we recognise that births and deaths are cardinal stages in the life cycle of any human being. Birth is indeed an embodiment of all that is new, developing and representing the future. Therefore, it is important that we take care of our children as the late Oliver Reginald Tambo once said that a nation that does not care for its children has no future.
It became necessary for us as a department to make these amendments as they identified some gaps and weaknesses in the legislation. I just want to quickly spell them out. The Bill seeks to streamline the procedures relating to the following.
Who should register the birth of a child other than the parents? This includes the next of kin or a legal guardian, but not a paid agent. At the moment, we have lots of paid agents going around registering children and causing some problems. The amendment also streamlines the issue of by whom and how orphans and abandoned children should be registered, because there are lots of problems around that. We want to simplify that process.
When a child or an adult's surname is changed, which procedures should be followed? This is especially important in our culture, where some children are born in an environment wherein their mothers are not married, and they end up using their mothers' surnames, and later on they want to change it. We want to make sure that it is not as difficult as it is now.
We have noticed a trend and would like to correct it, where parents register a child and later come back to inform us that the father was not the real one and they want to register the second one as the real father. As the department, we are saying that we will take your word when you come to us for the first time; but the second time round, you have to proof paternity if you are going to change the surname. We think that is fair enough because we can't tell who the real father is.
The birth registration has to be done within 30 days. When you come after 30 days, it would then be considered as a late registration of birth. We would like to just streamline the processes that govern that. There are sensitivities around the registration of adopted children. We would like to make sure that the children and the parents who are adopting them are protected.
We also want to amend and outline procedures for persons who want to change their sex status at a later stage; when they were born as one sex, registered as that, and later want to change to the opposite sex. We want to make sure that there are procedures for doing that.
We also want to register all undertakers, because they register deaths. Sometimes there are problems and you find that the undertaker was not registered and they cannot be found anywhere. We want to make sure that they are registered and that they are able to register deaths. That does not take away the rights of the parents or relatives also to register a death.
Lastly, we are changing the penalties in the Bill. Otherwise, I hope the members will support the Bill. I thank you. [Applause.]
Hon Minister, you are correct, that was your Bill.
House Chairperson, hon Ministers, Deputy Ministers, and members, the Bill deals precisely with issues which have been identified as creating blockages in recognition of the rights of the greater posterity of our citizenry. However, I suggested some significant changes in the portfolio committee without success. The department ignored the process of public submissions on the Bill, which could have been of assistance.
House Chair, if I could look at the whole process here, this kind of situation paints a quintessentially middle-class picture, and it is simply not how the majority of South Africans live.
Children often live with relatives, their fathers are often absent, and their mothers are often sick. The scourge of HIV and Aids has led to a plethora of unconventional family settings in South Africa. These families are equally worthy of respect and a chance to provide the best life for the children in their care.
The process of legislating to suit the middle class, by setting requirements that only the middle class is likely to meet, will amount to failure on the part of the government. Our legislation must serve and protect our people, not the other way around. Our people should not be oppressed by our legislation.
Hon members, in practice, as your own constituents will undoubtedly tell you, there are countless adults who have never had Identity Documents, and who have many children who were never registered at birth. Therefore, to use a parent's appearance on the Population Register and/or ID as a requirement for registering a child, blatantly ignores the reality in our country, especially in villages in our native land.
Clause 4(a) and (b) and clause 6 are wholly unsuitable for the majority of people in the South African society. These clauses arrogantly presume that all South African children are born into conventional family units, where no one is sick; the child's primary caregivers are his or her biological mother and father; the mother and father are married; and that the mother, father and child are living together.
Inyaniso yile yokuba akunjalo ke, ngoba nangoku kule Ndlu, baninzi abazali abahlala bodwa engekho amaqabane abo. [The truth is that it is not like that, because even in this House, there are many parents who stay alone without their spouses.] Speaker, this picture is far removed from the reality on the ground. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 is an agreement by the governments of the world stating what rights children should have. It covers rights on just about everything and applies to everyone under the age of 18 years.
Bearing in mind that 1989 marked the 30th Anniversary of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the 10th Anniversary of the International Year of a Child, article 2 says:
States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child or his or her parents or legal guardian's race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or . . . other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.
Article 6 says:
States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life.
Therefore, that is an inalienable right. I recently helped the 36-year-old ...
... uMama uNokwanda waseQonce, ongazange abenasazisi nesatifiketi sokuzalwa oko wazalwa. Mna ndizodibana naye apha e-Crossroads, kula ngingqi yam yovoto, mna ke, njengamntu usebenzayo. Ndithe xa ndifika ndancedwa ngamagosa phaya njengokuba sasincedisana, Sihlalo. Siye sahamba-hamba ke sizama ukulungisa loo nto, ngelingeni saphumelela ke kuba kukho mna. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[... Mrs Nokwanda from King William's Town, who never had an Identity Document and a birth certificate ever since she was born. I, as a person who does her job, met her in Crossroads, in my constituency. Chairperson, when I arrived there, I worked with the officials as we normally do. We went around trying to solve this and at last we succeeded because of my presence.]
She has never seen the door of a classroom. Her three children are subjected to the same treatment. This Bill paints a melancholy picture of this Parliament albeit the prudent principle that it has set out to serve - you are saying that you are an activist Parliament.
Sections 28 and 29 of the Constitution recognise the rights of children to life, shelter, name, nationality and the right to education. To allow only the social workers to administer the birth information of a displaced or orphaned child, places a burden on the already squeezed resources, because the country is reeling under a shortage of more than 40 000 social workers, as we speak. You must accredit those organisations that are currently working with children.
Ndithetha ngoomama abahlala begade abantwana phaya kwezaa ndawo sihlala kuzo, ezilokishini nasezilalini kwenzeka loo nto yabantu abakhulisa abantwana abangengobabo. Thina sinokuncedisa bona ke, ngoba kaloku bahleli begade aba bantwana. Thina singabalawula, sibanike iziqinisekiso kulo msebenzi bawenzayo. Enkosi. [Ixesha liphelile.] (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[I am talking about women who are guardians in our communities, in townships and villages, and this is what is happening where you find people who are taking care of children who are not even theirs. We can assist them, because they are looking after these children. We can monitor, and give them guardianship certificates for what they are doing. Thank you. [Time expired.]]
Chairperson, this Bill is long overdue. Children in particular are experiencing serious problems without the provisions we are now making. Firstly, we are very pleased that the term "biometrics" now enters into the definition section. This opens up a variety of technological ways of identifying an individual.
Clause 2 amends section 7 of the principal Act. The Director-General is now authorised to supplement as well as rectify particulars incorrectly reflected in documents. This has to happen in consultation with the affected individuals.
In the case of any child born alive, parents or prescribed persons must register the child within 30 days. Officials should ask traditional authorities, midwives, clinics and those staffing maternity wards to help meet this requirement.
A very positive aspect of this Bill appears in clause 1 which amends section 11 of the principal Act. This Bill allows parents who conceived a child out of wedlock to amend the registration if they marry at any future point while the child is still a minor. This will have such a beneficial impact on the child. While it is a small measure, it has the potential to build families.
The Bill is also very progressive in another regard. The Director-General can register abandoned or orphaned children. If and when the parents of an abandoned child are found, the Director-General can amend the registration.
Individuals who lack a forename or a surname can now apply to correct that. Often parents give children forenames that bring misery on them. Now such an individual, either through his parents, or if he is of age, can remedy this and ask for an alteration of his or her forename.
The alteration of a surname is a little more complicated. The individual has to have a particularly good motivation to do so.
I have a word of caution, however, for the department. It may come under enormous pressure to rectify a mountain of changing particulars. I sincerely trust that the department will have the personnel and the technical capacity to process alterations swiftly and efficiently. A careful process of auditing must exist to protect the integrity of the system.
In life we have births and deaths, and funeral undertakers see death as business. Some, therefore, tend not to comply with legal requirements. Now any funeral undertaker who wants to register deaths can apply for registration and a designation number. Such an undertaker will have to comply with a number of legal requirements. The department has to monitor this rigorously right from the start.
Remoteness of location denies rural communities access to a variety of government services. For this very reason, many children are not born in hospitals because people live too far from them. This makes the registration process even more difficult. These are important concerns that we need to deal with urgently. Cope supports this Bill. [Applause.]
Chairperson, once again I am the carbon copy of my colleague who is absent. During our caucus this morning, we ran through the clauses of this Bill and I have very strict instructions from my caucus to read the last two lines of what my colleague had prepared, and it reads:
This amending Bill constitutes a comprehensive revision of the Act and is fully supported by the IFP.
Thank you. [Applause.]
Ke a leboha, Modula Setulo. [Thank you, Chairperson.] Hon Ministers, Deputy Ministers, comrades, and hon members, the late former president of the ANC, Comrade Oliver Reginald Tambo, once said, and I quote:
A country, a movement, a person that does not value its youth, does not deserve its future.
In so saying he was reflecting on the caring spirit that has characterised the ANC throughout the years, and has been carried through to date as it creates a caring, national democratic society.
The Strategy and Tactics documents of the ANC further say, and I quote:
Among the most vulnerable in society are children, and a national democratic society should ensure their protection and continuous advancement.
Birth registration is the official recording of a child's birth by the state. It is a permanent and official record of a child's existence, and is the first point of contact between a child and the state. It is the first and fundamental right in and of itself, and it is a door to other rights providing a measure of protection against age-related exploitation and abuse.
The securing of children's right to nationality will allow them to get a passport, open a bank account, obtain credit, vote and secure employment. It helps to ensure access to basic services including immunisation, healthcare and school enrolment at the right stage.
In a recent survey conducted by government, the following obstacles to birth registration were identified, among other things: ignorance of the importance of birth registration, resulting in a failure to claim the right to an identity; lack of information and mobilisation of children and youth to claim their right to citizenship; and late registration that sometimes leads to illegal immigrants obtaining identification documents fraudulently.
Some parents do not have ID documents to register their children, partly due to access issues, lack of knowledge, their illegal status in the country, or tribal customs relating to the naming of children.
In her NCOP budget speech on 15 April 2010, the hon Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, stated, and I quote:
The National Population Register Campaign's key objective is to protect and secure the National Population Register and the entry point to the register will be at birth. Hence, in this regard, we commit to the following: The registration of every childbirth within 30 days of delivery; the issuing of identity documents to every South African child, 16 years and above; and the eradication of the late registration of births by December 2010.
The current legislative mandate for notification and registration of births is contained in the Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1992, whose administration is vested in the Director-General of Home Affairs, who, in terms of the Act, is also the custodian of all birth records in South Africa.
In terms of the Act, a birth must be reported to the department by the parents or guardian within 30 days of the child's date of birth. However, what is problematic about the Act is that it allows parents and guardians, in the event of being unable to register the birth themselves, to request a third person to do so on their behalf.
This provision opens the gap for agents to actively participate in birth registration, thus resulting in an inability to conduct verification processes. In some cases it also leads to false registration. The amending Bill seeks to secure the foregoing mischief by providing that the person giving notice of birth of a child must be one of the parents of the child, or any of the parents prescribed.
The Act provides for different levels of late registration, and these are: after 30 days, but before one year; after one year, but less than 15 years; and birth notified after 15 years. Despite the fact that the longer the delay of registration, the higher the requirements of documentary proof of parentage, place of birth, and age, this provision has opened the legislation to abuse. Noncitizens have used it to acquire citizenship fraudulently and citizens have used it to entitle themselves to benefits to which they are not entitled. This situation has compromised the integrity of our National Population Register, NPR.
The Bill lays the basis for the restoration of the NPR's integrity and limits late registration of birth into one category, namely 31 days and above. It also provides for stringent requirements in the regulations.
One of the internal challenges that South Africa has suffered post- democracy is the rapid spread of HIV/Aids to pandemic levels. The scourge has hit our beloved country hard in rural and peri-urban areas. As a result, it has, in some cases, wiped out parents and guardians and left children with no parents.
A new type of household, termed "a child-headed household", has emerged because of the intensity and extent of this phenomenon. The children living under such conditions have to depend upon each other for survival, with the elder one playing the role of parent or guardian to his or her younger siblings.
However, such children are often excluded from government social security services, like the child support grant, as their birth remains unregistered for want of parents or guardians.
In some cases, these children are exploited by rogue elements who register them as being in their foster care for the purpose of gaining access to foster care grants that they then use for their narrow, selfish ends. Such persons, like scavengers, prey on the vulnerable who cannot be protected but for timely state intervention.
The principal Act only provides for the notice of birth of an abandoned child to be made by a social worker or authorised officer, where any parent of the child cannot be traced. However, it does not provide for the registration of orphaned children and thus discriminates against parentless children.
It can thus be inferred that orphan children suffer twice. Firstly, from untimely alienation from parental protection and support, and, secondly, from being denied their constitutional right to state support through being barred from registering their birth, and consequently from receiving birth certificates and ID documents. Such socioeconomic exclusion is, to all intents and purposes, without any legitimate basis, bar being without parents.
A caring society cannot continue on a trajectory that punishes children for being born and left without parents. It is in that line that we commend this Amending Bill before this House as it provides for the registration of orphaned children, thus ensuring that child-headed families get assistance to register their births.
Passing the legislation will thus change the situation of the orphaned children, some of whom, as we sit here in Parliament today deciding their fate, are huddled in shacks and low-cost houses, wondering where their next meal will come from.
In fact, some of them stay for days without home-cooked meals. Many of these orphans depend on meals they receive once a day from school feeding schemes during school days. They arrive at schools with empty stomachs and have difficulty in concentrating on their school work.
The Bill further protects such children from being preyed upon by wolves in sheep's clothing, by providing that a social worker should assist child- headed families with registration. The Bill undertakes to close this lacuna. Furthermore, it provides for conclusive proof of paternity in cases where an amendment of a birth registration of a child born of unmarried parents, who then marry each other after registration of his or her birth, is applied for in a prescribed manner.
Equally as important as birth registration, is death registration, which marks the termination of the legal personality of a natural person. The death certificate provides prima facie proof that a death has occurred and thus enables the estate of the deceased person to be divided according to the laws of succession.
The death certificate as prima facie evidence of death also activates insurance companies to release funeral policy funds. In the case of a marriage, it frees the spouse to enter into another marriage without being open to being accused of bigamy. [Interjections.]
Order, order!
It is therefore vital that the process of death registration be regulated and its integrity assured. Such a process, if not properly regulated and its integrity assured, could be open to abuse and could, in extreme cases, lead to serious social conflicts.
The Act did not have a provision for the designation of funeral undertakers for purposes of engaging in the activities relating to the registration of deaths. However, the Bill does make this provision and thus ensures that not all funeral undertakers are involved in the registration of deaths, but only those who comply with the prescribed requirements.
The Convention of the Rights of the Child, article 7, states, and I quote:
The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right, from birth, to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.
A birth record is a statement of facts concerning an individual. It is a permanent legal record. Throughout life a person uses his or her certificate to prove age, parentage and citizenship. Not to register a child is to deny that child its citizenship rights enshrined in the Constitution.
To compromise the integrity of the National Population Register, is to risk national security. To build a caring society, we need to have a reliable database to enable us to plan development and effect the necessary social interventions.
Children are our tomorrow; let us treat them like the precious treasures they are.
Bagaetsho, dilo tse dingwe di tshwana le kgomo ya mo?ate, o a e gapa, o molato, o a e tlogela, o molato. Ke bona e kete Molao o o tlile go thusa bana ba rona, segolo bogolo jang ba ba tlhokang ba ba tshwanetseng ba kwadisiwe jaaka re utlwile fa DA e re bana ba tshwanetse go kwadisiwa ke mongwe le mongwe, fela re a itse gore go le gontsi bonweenwee bo kana kang mo nageng e ya rona e. Fa re tlogela gore bana ba kwadisiwe ke mongwe le mongwe re tla nna le bana ba le ba kae mo Aforika Borwa ba re tla bong re sa itse gore ba tswa kae, ba kwadisitswe ke bomang le gore ke bana ba bo mang.
Molao o, o fedisa dilo tse di ntseng jalo, gore go nne le batho ba ba tla kwadisang bana ka tsela e e latelwang mo Molaong, e seng re tsee mongwe le mongwe fela gore e nne ena yo o kwadisang ngwana fa a tsholwa mo lefatsheng.
Re a itse gore bana ba rona ba sotlega go le kana kang. Tshotlego ya bana e itsiwe ke rona rotlhe. Motlotlegi Mnqasela, o ka seka wa re ruta tshotlego ya bana mo malatsing a gompieno. Re a itse gore bana ba sotlega go le kana kang. Ke ka moo re tsayang matsapa a makanakana a go siamisa Melao e, gore e thuse bana mmogo le batsadi mo nageng e ya rona. Ke a leboga. [Legofi.] (Translation of Setswana paragraphs follows.)
[Some things are difficult to deal with. It seems that this Act will be of help to our children, especially those who need to be registered - as the DA has already mentioned that these children must be registered by anyone despite the corruption that is experienced in our country. If we allow anyone to register those children, how many children will we have without knowing who their parents are.
This Act brings such things to an end; there should be appointed people who register these children in relation to the Act, not just anyone.
We all know the sufferings experienced by our children. Hon Mnqasela, you do not have to teach us about the sufferings endured by our children - we all know. This is the reason why we are taking effort to rectify these Acts so that they can help both the children and the parents in our country. I thank you. [Applause.]]
Hon Chair, I would like to thank the ANC for the support and everything they have said. I would also like to thank the hon MacKenzie for interpreting the Bill correctly, and assure him that we are taking his cautions seriously. I would also like to thank hon Mpontshane and the IFP for their support. Hhayi-ke umhlonishwa uMnqasela ngimuncamile. [Uhleko.] [Well, I give up on hon Mngasela. [Laughter.]]
He pretends not to understand the Bill, but he understands it. I now realise that he always says the opposite of what is the fact. [Interjections.] He says that this Bill will help the middle class.
This Bill is not for the middle class. That is why we are saying we want to streamline the registration of children who are orphans. [Interjections]. No, social workers will be involved where children are in a home. Otherwise, we will regulate how orphaned children, who are not in homes, are dealt with.
But the reality of hon Mnqasela's input is to protect the paid agents because it's that middle class that pays agents to register their children. [Interjections.] That is what we are doing away with, which is what he wants to maintain. That's all, that's all. [Interjections.]
When we say anyone can register, we know that people are paid. They go with forms this big. Our people who have used public transport and come from far are delayed because they come with these piles of forms, having been paid by middle class parents to go and register their children. That we don't want and we are going to do away with it. [Applause.]
That concludes the debate. Are there any objections to the Births and Deaths Registration Amendment Bill being read a second time? No objections.
Mr Chairman, on a point of order: I am not at all sure, sir, how we can agree to it. There may be no objections to it but there isn't a quorum in the House to vote this afternoon, as we have already heard from the hon Deputy Chief Whip of the Majority Party, who appealed to you earlier not to take the matter further.
I believe that the same precedent has to happen this afternoon and you will have to use the same Rule and use your discretion in making sure that this stands over to another parliamentary day.
Hon member, you are correct, if we don't have a quorum then the question stands over.
Debate concluded.
Decision of Question postponed.