The Eastern Cape High Court (Makhanda) has reserved its verdict in an application regarding the registration of the births of children by unmarried fathers.

A Pretoria News report notes the Births and Deaths Registration Act does not make provision for unmarried fathers – caring for their children as single parents – to register the children’s births without the mother being present.

The issue concerns an application brought by the Centre for Child Law, represented by Lawyers for Human Rights.

The matter was initially heard in 2018, when Regulation 12 of the Act was declared unconstitutional. This stated that an application for the birth certificate of a child born to unmarried parents can only be made by the mother of the child.

But the centre claims section 10 of the legislation also needed to be declared constitutionally invalid, as it is closely connected with section 12.

The centre said that without also declaring section 10 invalid, unmarried fathers remained unable to register the birth of their child without the mother being present.

Anjuli Maistry, an attorney at the centre, said the inability to register a child’s birth not only infringed on the rights of children to have a name and a nationality, but also prevented these children from accessing other rights – such as social services, healthcare and education.

Full Pretoria News report