Marriages, late birth registrations allowed under lockdown level 3

The home affairs department says it will now provide marriage services and receive requests for late registration of births as the country moves to level 3 of the lockdown.

These two new services, by appointment, are in addition to services that the department offered when the country moved to level 4 at the beginning of May.

These are the issuing of uncollected identity documents, issuance of temporary identity certificates, registration of births and deaths, reissue of birth and death certificates and issuance of passports to those in export and cargo transport.

“For marriages, couples are required to book an appointment by calling their nearest home affairs office. On the day of the marriage, couples are requested to visit our offices with only their witnesses, to keep the numbers of people at our offices at a bare minimum,” the department said in a statement.

It said an appointment was also required when applying for a late registration of birth, which refers to a birth registration application lodged after 30 days of such a birth.

“Children born during the lockdown will not follow the LRB process. This includes children who were born from February 26 2020 but could not be registered because of the lockdown.”

The department also said between March 27 2020 and May 28 this year, a total of 133,251 births were registered.

Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal each registered more than 27,000 children during this period.

The department said 68,768 deaths were registered during the same period.

The department said a total of 55,761 temporary identity certificates were issued, showing a high demand for these certificates as was also the case for re-issuance of birth certificates.

“In total, 51,844 birth certificates were replaced. To support economic activity and food security, 475 passports were issued to those in export and cargo transport.”

The department said only 66,665 uncollected smart ID cards were cleared.

“This is a drop in the ocean considering that the number of uncollected smart ID cards exceeds 411,000.”

The department requested all people visiting its facilities to wear masks and to observe social distancing protocols inside and outside the offices.

The refugee reception offices remain closed.

“However, permits issued lawfully, and expired during the lockdown, would be deemed to be valid until July 31 2020.”