Statement: Case against Home Affairs on backlog in birth registrations in High Court on 10 June 2026

Joint press statement: Court case against Home Affairs on backlog in birth registrations to be heard in Western Cape High Court on 10 June 2026 

Tomorrow, Wednesday 10 June 2026, the Children’s Institute (University of Cape Town) and a group of South African parents, represented by the Legal Resources Centre, will be in the Western Cape High Court for the hearing of our birth registration case. This legal action is due to the severe delays in the processing of applications for birth registration, and the significant consequences this has on the constitutional rights of children. 

On 19 May 2023, the then-Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, acknowledged to Parliament that between 2018 and 2022, a backlog of undecided late registration of birth (LRB) applications had accumulated. LRB applications are applications for birth registration that are lodged after the child is 30 days old. In December 2022, Home Affairs had 258 000 undecided LRB applications, primarily for children under the age of 18 years. The applicants had lodged their applications, had receipts and were all waiting for Home Affairs to decide their applications and issue their birth certificates. Most had been waiting for years.

During 2023 and 2024 the Children’s Institute and the Legal Resources Centre sent three letters to the Minister and Department of Home Affairs (DHA) detailing cases of children whose LRB applications were stuck in the backlog and requested urgent intervention for these children and others also stuck in the backlog. No response was received to any of the letters.

In December 2024,the Children’s Institute and a group of parents, represented by the Legal Resources Centre, launched litigation in the Western Cape High Court. The litigation is aimed at compelling Home Affairs to:

(a) decide the applications of the 15 children and two adults involved in the court case and issue their birth certificates if approved;

(b) diagnose the systemic inefficiencies that resulted in the applicants and their children, and over a quarter of a million other children, waiting many years for decisions on their applications; and 

(c) draft a plan to address these systemic inefficiencies so that present and future LRB applications are decided without long delays. 

After an initial five-month long delay by Home Affairs in responding to the litigation, all papers have been filed, and the case is set down for a hearing on Wednesday 10 June 2026. 

This press statement provides details of the litigation to date and the key debates emerging from the court papers.