To summarize as per Pro.bono.org and our finding:"Following the passing of the Civil Unions Act, the Department of Home Affairs (DOH) now caters in its paperwork for same sex partners by having created a document which mirrors the unabridged marriage certificate. It is call an unabridged civil union. The only difference is that instead of referring to husband it refers to partner A; and instead of referring to wife it refers to partner B."
"Unfortunately the same attention has not been paid to the changes needed in the paperwork formalise the birth of a child in a civil union. After the birth of a child, there are three documents created: a Notice of Birth, an Application for Birth Certificate, and an Abridged or Unabridged Birth Certificate. On all three these documents the particulars of father and of mother are required and appear."
"The Notice of Birth further specifies that what is required are the details of the natural mother and natural father/parent in terms of s5 of the Children¹s Status Act of 1987. [In terms of section 5 any child born as a result of artificial insemination is deemed for all purposes to be the legitimate child of the spouses.]"
"The unabridged birth certificate issued for the child born into a civil union contains the following information: the details of the father and his identity number, and the details of the mother but not her identity document. We have been advised that the IT system of the DOH is set up in a manner that it rejects the second parent¹s identity number if it is of the same gender as that of the first parent."
"What we do know is that the DOH is giving civil union partners wrong advice by telling them to by hand delete the terms mother and father and insert partner A and partner B."
"What we do not yet understand fully are what are the legal consequences, if any, of the unabridged birth certificate incorrectly labelling the gender of the parents, and of it containing the identity number of only one parent. This must be established."
South Africa is not the first country to experience this challenge. Most countries that legalized gay marriage had to adjust their forms to cater for all their citizens. Birth registrations refer now to “partners” and not “husband and wife”. But what is Home Affairs doing about this situation? To date nobody can tell us any plans made to correct or address the situation.
Until now.
The Baby-ventures Rainbow Family, a voluntary lawyers firm appointed by Pro-bono.org and Triangle Project will be lobbying this case together with one of our members. We call on our community to please contact us urgently if you are affected by the above situation. This will include
any birth registrations after December 2006 and you are legally married. We are in the process of further action and want to include any additional cases.
Contact urgently or call Angela on 084 260 7474.
