A piece of law that prevents a single dad from registering his child’s birth under his surname unfairly discriminates against unmarried fathers on the basis of their marital status.
This is according to the Constitutional Court, which on Wednesday upheld the same ruling made in the high court in Makhanda - that section 10 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act was invalid and inconsistent with the constitution. The section prohibited an unmarried father from giving notice of the birth of his child under his surname, in the absence of the child’s mother or without her consent.
Before their daughter was born, Ndovya travelled between SA and the DRC on a visitor’s permit. The visa expired during the same period. Ndovya could not renew the visa as her pregnancy was at an advanced stage. In a majority judgment penned by acting justice Margie Victor, the court identified several problems with the section.The difficulty experienced by unmarried fathers in registering the births of their children in their surnames, if the consent of the mother has not been obtained or if the mother is unavailable;
She said the section “potentially” infringed the rights of both the biological father and the child in two main respects.
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