The Million Without Certificates In South Africa

In South Africa, an estimated one million people are born but undocumented, due to delays and failures in birth registration processes. A court challenge has been released since this problem was recognised, challenging the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) over the same delays that lead to at least a year to 7 years of effort to manually resolve this issue, compared to the day’s worth it’s normally supposed to be.

The impact is no less than the effort wasted, as children are actively denied education, healthcare, etc. Necessities that should be a right, if not for the delay in recognition by the legal system. Without a birth certificate, a child cannot sit for legal syllabuses or access grants even if they are in need. Additionally, false hope and costs are created by things like unnecessary interviews, outdated paper filing, and unfulfilled promises that appear convincing to them. This all points to the danger of South African minds not being able to properly develop or grow at all, or even live comfortably, due to a simple delay by systematic inefficiency. What’s more is that the lack of documentation makes this individual more prone to weakness or exploitation, as the lack of paperwork makes the accountability position unclear.

The court case now seeks not only to resolve the status of children and adults but to force systemic change in the DHA to prevent any severe delays that lead to damage like this again.