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Disclaimer / Limitations
This country’s legal measures were reviewed by our legal staff in consultation with in-country lawyers and/or CRVS legal experts. All efforts were made to ensure the accuracy of the legal analysis, however, if you consider there to be any discrepancies or if there have been changes in the law of the country since our staff last updated the legal analysis, we welcome any additional information or insights. Please contact us via this form.
Civil Registration System
South Africa
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South Africa
Civil Registration System
Offices and Officers
Offices and Officers
Primary Civil Registration Offices
At what level of civil division are primary registration offices located?
Unclear
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
To ensure that civil registration services are accessible to the public, it is advisable that a primary registration office be maintained in locations that correspond to minor civil divisions of the country (such as municipalities, towns or districts). The jurisdictional boundaries of primary offices can be adjusted on the basis of population size, resource availability, accessibility, literacy rate and simplicity of registration. If civil registration services are available online (and the entire population has access to internet), the location of physical offices becomes less important.
The Births and Deaths Registration Act does not specify the level of administrative division at which primary registration offices are located. The 2014 Regulations refer to district and regional offices of the Department as locations where notices may be given, but do not define the boundaries or number of primary registration areas. The specific boundaries and number of offices are determined administratively by the Department of Home Affairs rather than prescribed in legislation.
Does the law establish, or authorize the establishment of, secondary civil registration offices under the jurisdiction of the primary civil registration office?
Yes
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
Establishing secondary civil registration offices as sub-units of primary registration offices at locations with high occurrence of vital events, such as in hospitals or other health facilities, is a key contributor to facilitating higher rates of registration.
In some countries the law establishes the secondary registration offices at health facilities rather than providing authority to establish them.
The law establishing secondary registration offices or providing a power to establish them should include the process of appointing a responsible registrar and clearly define boundaries for the registration area. If a secondary registration site is established in a health facility, the law should state the functions empowered to the health facility registrar.
The Births and Deaths Registration Act provides the legal basis for establishing secondary registration points through the general delegation power, which authorises the Director-General to delegate registration functions to any person, including persons not in the service of the State. No specific provision expressly establishes secondary civil registration offices or prescribes their powers as distinct from primary offices. In practice, the Department of Home Affairs has established satellite offices within health facilities under this general delegation authority.
Does the law authorize the local civil registrar to use mobile registration to reach remote or rural areas?
Authorized by the law
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
For those areas of the country where the population density is too low to justify setting up a permanent registration unit or where the accessibility to an existing registration unit is limited by terrain or distance, consideration should be given to establishing a mobile (by land, sea or air) registration unit. Such a unit would travel to predetermined places according to a fixed and well publicized schedule and remain in each such place long enough to collect and record the required registration data for the vital events that will have occurred since its last visit.
No provision in the Births and Deaths Registration Act or the 2014 Regulations expressly authorises mobile registration units. However, the broad delegation power in Section 4(1), which permits the Director-General to authorise any person to exercise registration functions, provides the legal basis under which mobile registration units operate in practice.
