Cost of registering births and deaths adds to burden of impoverished communities

25 November 2019

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is appealing to the Department of Home Affairs and Social Development, to put measures in place to assist the faraway communities living in the vicinity of the Rietfontein border post, who have to undertake trips to Upington to register births and deaths.

Many people residing in Rietfontein, Klein Mier, Groot Mier and Leeuwbos, do not even have money to bury their dead, now they have to take a taxi to Upington, which is 280 kilometres away, on their own cost, to ensure that all respective paperwork is submitted when a child is born or when they lose a loved one.

This is due to the fully equipped Home Affairs Office, situated at the local clinic, having become dysfunctional due to an apparent lack of manpower.

The DA finds the situation intolerable and cannot allow the office at the clinic to become a white elephant.

I have asked my counterparts in parliament to take up this matter with the National Department of Home Affairs, while from my side I will also be liaising with the MEC’s of Health and Social Development, Mase Manopole and Martha Bartlett, in order to try and find an amicable solution to this problem.

It is unreasonable to have to unnecessarily add to the burdens of the people living in rural areas. If government stops working in silos, and steps up its inter-departmental cooperation, so much more could be achieved to assist the most vulnerable people of the Northern Cape.

Issued by Harold McGluwa, DA Northern Cape Provincial Chairperson & Chief Whip of the Provincial Caucus, 25 November 2019