How can I get an ID if my birth wasn't registered and I lost my clinic card?

The long answer

Thank you for your email asking what you can do as your mother had lost the clinic card recording your birth and you wrote your matric with a date of birth only. You are now 20, living alone and have no parent or guardian to help you.

Let’s start with the lost clinic card:

You can apply for a duplicate clinic card from the hospital where you were born. You need to make a certified affidavit saying that your mother had lost the card, giving her first name and surname and your own first name and surname that would have been on the card. (The Road-to-Health card is now a 48-page booklet.) 

You can ask the clinic to find your folder and issue a new clinic card or booklet. They will transfer all the information from your folder into a new booklet, clearly marked as a duplicate.

If you were born in South Africa to a foreign mother, you can apply for South African citizenship when you are eighteen, without a parent or guardian, if you have not lived anywhere else but South Africa, and if your birth has been registered under the Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1992. (This is in terms of the amended Citizenship Act.)

But if your birth was not registered under the Births and Deaths Registration Act, you need to apply for a birth certificate first, which you would need to apply for citizenship. 

You apply for the birth certificate in “late registration of birth” (LRB), which is often a long and difficult process involving an interview with Home Affairs (DHA). After the interview with the screening committee, your application will be forwarded to the Department of Home Affairs head office for approval. 

It can take a long time to get your appointment for the late birth registration interview, as Home Affairs has a huge backlog of LRB applications. You would need to provide the following documents: (all the forms are available at DHA offices)

• Application for an ID (Form B1-9);

• DHA 24/LRB (notice of birth);

• Children born at health facilities: DHA 24/PB (Proof of birth) 

• Supporting documentation like clinic card. If you have a baptismal certificate and school records, (school reports and registers) that will also help support your application.

• DHA 288

• Your biometrics (ID-size photo and fingerprints);

• Fingerprints of parent/s;

• Certified copy of ID/Passport/asylum permit of parent/s.

• Certified copy of ID of next of kin

Even though you may not be able to provide all these documents, your application must still be accepted and considered by Home Affairs in terms of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act of 2000 (PAJA). The Constitution says that all administrative action by the state must be procedurally fair, just and reasonable, and PAJA is the law that gives effect to this constitutional right. Home Affairs has a constitutional responsibility to treat applications for citizenship in a fair, just and reasonable way. 

If you find that Home Affairs is unwilling to help you, you are entitled to request written reasons for the refusal and to submit a written complaint to the manager of the relevant local office or to the Head Office. 

If they still don’t help you, you could approach one of the following organisations for help and advice: Lawyers for Human Rights and the Legal Resources Centre.

These are their contact details:

• Lawyers for Human Rights

Email: info@lhr.org.za

Tel: Musina 015 534 2203

Durban: 031 301 0531

Pretoria: 012 320 2943

Johannesburg: 011 339 1960

Cape Town: 021 424 8561

• Legal Resources Centre: 

Email: info@lrc.org.za

Tel: Johannesburg: 011 836 9831

Cape Town: 021 481 3000.

Wishing you the best,
Athalie