A growing and worrying number of South African teenagers aged 17 and younger are having babies, with Stats SA saying 45 257 births registered in 2021 occurred to mothers 17 and younger, dozens of them aged 11 and 12. Additionally, more than 60% of all births had no details of fathers.
A total of 1 087 526 births were registered in SA in 2021, reports TimesLIVE.
“Of these, 949 757 (87.3%) occurred and were registered in 2021 (current birth registrations), while 137 769 (12.7%) occurred in the previous years but were registered in 2021,” it said.
The negative impact of Covid-19 and national lockdown regulations, like the closure of Home Affairs offices, resulted in a 9.2% decline in registration within 30 days in 2020, but this improved in 2021.
Additionally, in 2021, 74.6% of births complied with the Births and Deaths Registration Amendment Act, which stipulates all births must be registered within 30 days, but in KwaZulu-Natal, only 67.7% of births were registered within 30 days.
More than 60% of all births registered in 2021 had no details of fathers, but this was expected to change in the future, as in September 2021 the Constitutional Court ruled this section of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act unconstitutional.
“This means unmarried fathers can have their information registered on the birth certificate of their children at the Department of Home Affairs,” said Stats SA.
TimesLIVE article – Increase in births to mothers aged 17 and younger (Open access)
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