Civil registration and vital statistics
systems in South Africa
Outline of presentation
 Availability of vital statistics
 Legal framework
 Civil registration
 Acquiring data on divorces
 Process flows
 Dissemination of information
 Challenges
 Key stakeholders
 Strategic targets
 Concluding remarks
2
Availability of vital statistics
 Available statistics

Live births

Foetal deaths (stillbirths)

Deaths

Marriages

Divorces
 Not available (or not processed)

Annulments

Judicial separations

Adoptions

Legitimations
3
Legal framework
 Births, deaths and stillbirths

Department of Home Affairs

Births and deaths registration Act (Act No. 51 of 1992)
 Marriages

Department of Home Affairs

Marriage Act (Act No. 25 of 1961)
 Divorces

Department of Justice and Constitutional Development

Divorce Act (Act No. 70 of 1979)
4
Civil registration system (1)
 Births registration

Department of Home Affairs

To be registered within 30 days of birth




Between 30 days and 1 year

Between 1 year and 14 years

15 years and older
No registration of birth is done for a person who dies before
notice of birth has been given
A forename and a surname are required for registration
Birth outside the country: notice given to the head of SA
diplomatic or consular mission, or a regional representative in SA
5
Civil registration system (2)
 Death registration


Department of Home Affairs
Natural cause: to be registered as soon as practicable by a person
present at death, or who became aware of the death, or who has
charge of the burial concerned
− Medical practitioners/professional nurses

Other than natural cause: Refer to a police officer (Inquests Act,
1959)
− District surgeon/forensic pathologists


Death outside SA: Death certificate or other similar document
issued by the authority concerned in the country in which the
death occurred required to register the death in SA
No burial takes place unless notice of the death has been given
and burial order provided
6
Civil registration system (3)
 Stillbirth registration

Department of Home Affairs

At least 26 weeks of gestation



Natural cause: medical practitioner present or who examined
corpse shall certify the death; any person present at the still-birth
makes the declaration of the still-birth
Any doubt if the child was stillborn: report to a police officer
No burial takes place unless notice of stillbirth has been given and
burial order provided
7
Civil registration system (4)
 Improvements in birth and death registration

Main stakeholders:
− Department of Home Affairs
− Department of Health
− Department of Social Development

Activities:
− Registration at the Department of Home Affairs offices
− On-line registration at selected hospitals
− Mobile trucks to access hard-to-reach areas
− Mobilisation by Department of Social Development for birth
registration required for the up-take of child support grant for the
poor
8
Civil registration system (5)
 Marriages


Department of Home Affairs (DHA)
Civil marriages – undertaken by licensed marriage officers (DHA
officials or priests)

Offices of the DHA, chapels or religious buildings

Customary marriages:


Recognition of Customary Marriages Act
Stats SA in the process of acquiring data on registered customary
marriages
9
Acquiring data on divorces
 Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
through its divorce courts
 Stats SA designed a form requiring provision of
information from divorcees after divorce decree has been
granted

Population group

Age at time of divorce

Occupation at time of divorce

Marital status at time of marriage

Duration of marriage

Number of times married

Solemnisation of present marriage

Matrimonial property system

Number of minor children involve (age, sex)
10
Process flow – births and marriages
Department of Home Affairs
(DHA) captures data
DHA makes data available
on main frame
Data editing
Data downloaded via ftp /
Collected from SITA
Data analysis and
report writing
Dissemination of report
11
Process flow – divorces
Divorce forms received
through the post
Sorting forms by year of
divorce and court name
Data editing
Data capturing of all
variables on the form
Data analysis and
report writing
Dissemination of report
12
Process flow: deaths and stillbirths
Collection
Sorting
Pasting
Data Capture
(ID variables)
STORES
Export to
Editing
Data Capture
& QA
Coding
Pre-coding
Data
Editing
Derivation
0f UCD
Data
Analysis
Publication &
Dissemination
13
Dissemination
 Annual statistical releases

Hard copies
 CD containing unit records of data for:


Marriages and divorces
Deaths and stillbirths
 Statistical releases and data published on the web:

www.statssa.gov.za
 Special tables provided on request
14
Challenges – births and marriages
 No control over collection of information (registration
and completion of forms)
 No control over data processing

Cannot undertake quality assurance at different stages of data
processing
 No access to original forms

No way of verifying or investigating non-plausible cases
 Not all variables are made available to Statistics South
Africa

Limited variables for in-depth analysis
 Late or non-registration of births
 Registration of customary marriages
15
Challenges – divorces
 There are several courts that deal with divorce cases and no
central point for collection of the forms
 Shortage of questionnaire in courts
 No control over completion of forms

Non-response to certain questions
 Return of questionnaires by clients

Through the post office which results in delays or forms getting lost
 Inability to determine complete coverage of granted divorces


Use court rolls – not all courts send their court rolls
Initiative of the DoJCD in collaboration with DHA and STATS SA to
develop a tool for recording cases
 Mistakes introduced by capturing
16
Challenges – deaths and stillbirths
 No control over collection of information (registration and
completion of forms)
 No control over completion of forms


Data subject to content errors and omissions
E.g. information on education, occupation, industry, place-name,
population group incomplete and therefore limits analysis
 Under registration of deaths particularly among children and
those in the rural areas
 Misreporting and insufficient reporting of causes of death on
the death notification forms
 Late registration of deaths
 Time-lag between the event, registration and publication of
information
17
Late registrations
Year of
death
Number of
deaths
published in
June 2007
Additional forms
received in the
2007/8 processing
phase
Total number of
deaths (by July 2008)
1997
316 507
52
316 559
1998
365 053
56
365 109
1999
380 982
55
381 037
2000
414 530
238
414 768
2001
453 404
105
453 509
2002
499 925
157
500 082
2003
553 718
481
554 199
2004
572 350
270
572 620
2005
591 213
2 124
593 337
18
Challenges – general
 Dependence on other departments for data
 Limited information for in-depth analysis on births, deaths,
marriages and divorces
 Non-compliance with legislation governing registration on
the side of the public
 Inability to provide information at geographic levels lower
than province
19
Key stakeholders
 Department of Home Affairs
 Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
 Department of Health
 Department of Social Development
 South African Social Security Agency
 Department of Provincial and Local Government
 Family and Marriage Society of South Africa
 Research and academic institutions
 UN agencies
 Statistical agencies from other countries
 Business community
20
Strategic targets
 Collaboration and statistical partnership with suppliers



Building capacity to collect (and process where applicable) quality
information
Participate in initiatives on increasing registration coverage
Integrate systems, to enable timely access and proper tracking of
information
 Process management




Integrated storage management system that electronically tracks
received forms across all series
Automate - for timeliness and accuracy
Review and revamp all series - to improve content, quality and
presentation of reports
Document procedures and guidelines for processing various series to enable standard application of procedures
21
Concluding remarks
 Civil registration improving in South Africa



Live births – 81% (2007); Deaths – 83% (2006)
Improvements required for completeness of registration and
complete and accurate completion of forms
Concerted effort by all stakeholders, including the public, required
 Statistics produced depend on the quality of input data, and
the need for enhanced efforts to register vital events.
 Wider use of the data leads to improvements in the quality
of the data over time.
22
Contact details
Statistics South Africa: http://www.statssa.gov.za
1. Ntebaleng Chobokoane (Executive Manager: Health and Vital Statistics)
NtebalengC@statssa.gov.za
2. Maletela Tuoane-Nkhasi (Manager: Births and Deaths)
MaletelaT@statssa.gov.za
3. Susanna Ubomba-Jaswa
SusannaUJ@statssa.gov.za
(Manager: Marriages and Divorces)
Department of Home Affairs: http://www.dha.gov.za
1. Thomas Sigama (Director: National Population Register)
Thomas.Sigama@dha.gov.za