The Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security has urged family members visiting the ministry’s offices for the death registration of a relative to entrust only one person with the task.

Ministry Executive Director, Etienne Maritz in an advisory on death registration during the COVID-19 pandemic on Tuesday said groups of people visit the ministry’s offices to register a single death.

“As the death toll increases in the country, the queues for death registration at our offices have also increased. We have noted that often, a group of people attend our offices to register a single death. At times, we have received up to seven people registering one death. While we appreciate that moral support may be required for this type of registration, we caution that this is working against our plans to decongest our offices during this difficult time,” he said.

Maritz advised that all deaths are electronically notified by public and private hospitals or police mortuaries as soon as they occur and this is done through the Electronic Death Notification System.

The family is then given a note with the notification number and other relevant details and this notification links the death of a person to the relevant profile in the Population Register, which shortens the registration time substantially.

During death registration at a civil registration office, the person registering or informant should present the note from the hospital or police mortuary reflecting the electronic death notification number; the original Identification Document (ID) of the deceased and a copy of such ID. This need not be certified.

If the original ID of the deceased is unavailable, an original sworn statement in which the informant declares that the original ID of the deceased is not available and the reason why it is not available, should be availed along with the original ID of the informant and a copy of such ID.

“The informant must also know the intended place of burial at the time of death registration. If the documents listed above are available and the intended place of burial is known, the registration will be straightforward. One person should be able to register the death,” Maritz stated.

Source: Namibia Press Agency