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Home Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma today Friday 5 November 2010, hosted a Malawian government delegation led by Nicholas Dausi, the Deputy Minister in Malawian President Bingu Mutharika's office, at the Sheraton Hotel in Pretoria.

Deputy Minister Dausi and his delegation has been in South Africa on a three-day UNICEF official visit focusing on national registration systems. South Africa is among the few countries in the world which registers its nationals. In this regard, South Africa shared its experiences with regard to the national population registration campaign, launched by President Jacob Zuma and Minister Dlamini Zuma, early this year aimed at the registration of children within 30 days of birth and encouraging 16 year olds and above to apply for ID's in line with the law.

Speaking at the bilateral discussions Minister Dlamini Zuma expressed her appreciation at the visit from the Malawian delegation so that South Africa could share experiences of its registration of births and deaths as well as registration of marriages and other immigration matters.

"I am pleased you have chosen to visit South Africa as part of the UNICEF sponsored programme to study national registration systems. As you know, we in South Africa, have prioritised the registration of the births of children within 30 days and have even linked some hospitals in the country to able mothers to register their children before they leave hospital. This will ensure the integrity and security of our population register. In addition, we will be able to issue identity documents to all children when they reach 16 years of age so that they will be able to vote when they reach 18."

"Accordingly, the Department of Home Affairs can be seen as the custodian of the family tree. Children many generations from now will be able to trace their roots if we document the births of children, registration of marriages and deaths properly."

Further elaborating on the need for a secure population register, Minister Dlamini Zuma said, "A secure and accurate population register also facilitates planning by the State to provide social services to its citizens including education and health services. We will also be able to notice trends in terms of phenomena including infant and mother mortality which government can then deal with proactively."

Minister Dausi also expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to visit South Africa and to be exposed to the systems that the Department had implemented to provide civic services to its people.

"It has indeed inspiring to be exposed to such technology in an African country, especially since we in Malawi do not have such systems. It encourages us to aspire to provide similar services to our people. We welcome this new level of co-operation with South Africa and eagerly anticipate more of the same," concluded Minister Dausi.

In response Malawain Deputy Minister expressed his appreciation for the exposure to various areas of South African Home Affairs dealing with registration of births, marriages and deaths including the use of mobile units to register nationals in far flung rural areas.

The Deputy Minister also expressed his delegation's appreciation in being exposed to hospital connectivity in which hospitals are connected to home affairs to facilitate online birth registration.