Civil registration and vital statistics systems in South Africa

1. Civil registration and vital statistics systems in South Africa

2. 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

3. Availability of vital statistics • Available statistics • Live births • Foetal deaths (stillbirths) • Deaths • Marriages • Divorces • Not available (or not processed) • Annulments • Judicial separations • Adoptions • Legitimations

4. 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)

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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)

11. 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

12. 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

13. Process flow: deaths and stillbirths Data Capture (ID variables) Collection Sorting Pasting STORES Data Capture & QA Export to Editing Coding Pre-coding Derivation 0f UCD Data Analysis Publication & Dissemination Data Editing

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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 Challenges – deaths and stillbirths

18. Late registrations

19. 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 Challenges – general

20. 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 Key stakeholders

21. 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 Strategic targets

22. 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. Concluding remarks

23. 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 (Manager: Marriages and Divorces) SusannaUJ@statssa.gov.za Department of Home Affairs: http://www.dha.gov.za 1. Thomas Sigama (Director: National Population Register) Thomas.Sigama@dha.gov.za