Parents in case against home affairs
Haunted by the knowledge that their children’s futures are slipping away as a result of home affairs officials’ refuse to issue them with birth certificates – a group of South African parents has filed a class action against the department.
The main aim of the legal action is to stop officials from demanding DNA tests that cost thousands of rands before children are issued with a birth certificate. The affected parents all live in the Aliwal North and Sterkspruit area.
Lead counsel in the matter Lilla Crouse SC said what she saw while preparing for the case broke her heart.
“It was the poverty and hopelessness of the parents and them knowing that this would continue without an education for the children.”
According to papers filed at the Grahamstown high court, the parents want the department to stop demanding DNA tests unless government carries the cost.
Complainants also want to compel officials to accept an affidavit as proof of parentage and to stop refusing birth registration where one parent is an illegal immigrant or undocumented.
Children without birth certificates are turned away by schools as no provision is made for them with regards to stationery, transport, feeding schemes and subsidies.
The first applicant in the matter, Andile Nyangintsimbe, 32, said he is a South African citizen and that the mother of his three children was from Lesotho but was legally in S Africa.
Their oldest two children, born in 2004 and 2005, were registered by the department but officials refused to register the third.
Nyangintsimbe, who runs a spaza shop, said he had to enrol his son, born in 2011, in a private school as the government schools all turned him away.
“We were told by officials at the Sterkspruit department of home affairs office that we must go to East London and get a DNA test to prove that he is my son. I am 100% convinced that I am his biological father. He knows no other father but me,” he said.
Maserame Makoloane, 38, has four children between the ages of seven and 16 and none is registered as their father has disappeared and the department wants her to find him before issuing them with birth certificates.
“They all have the same father. None has received formal schooling. First I was told to bring an affidavit explaining the situation. But another official wasn’t satisfied with the affidavit. Each time I go, there is a different official who has different requirements,” she said.
Makoloane said home affairs wanted her to find the children’s missing father to get his DNA. “We can’t access grants either. Life is hard,” she said.
In 2018, the Grahamstown high court declared a blanket ban on birth registration by parents whose circumstances did not adhere to the department’s checklist, and had sent the regulations back to parliament to be fixed.
Home affairs spokesperson David Hlabane did not respond to a request for comment but lawyers for the department filed papers indicating they would oppose the action.