31% of Home Affairs Online Birth Registration Facilities Offline

PRESS RELEASE

Of the 353 Home Affairs online birth registration facilities currently available in hospitals across the country, 111 (31.4%) are currently experiencing debilitating "infrastructure or IT related problems", according to a reply to a DA parliamentary question.

Online birth registration facilities play a crucial role in ensuring that birth registrations take place as soon as possible. This also saves financially challenged and rural citizens from the costly expense of having to travel long distances to Home Affairs offices to register births.

The implementation of online registration facilities was launched in March this year in order to ensure the National Population Registry's integrity and eradicate identity theft, child trafficking and late birth registration at adult stage.

In the parliamentary reply, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) fails to provide a set roll-out schedule for the initial 795 targeted health institutions for the programme. This suggests a distinct lack of commitment or sense of priority from the Minister of Home Affairs, Naledi Pandor.

I will submit further parliamentary questions to determine the progress of the roll out and whether the DHA has finalised a schedule yet.

We will also write to Minister Pandor requesting that she explore alternative and innovative solutions such as partnering with private data service providers in order to ensure that all hospitals are online.

Speedy birth registrations ensure access to crucial services. The Department of Home Affairs must deliver.

Manny de Freitas, Shadow Minister of Home Affairs