What is a Death Record?
A death certificate is either a legal document issued by a medical practitioner that states when a person died, or a document issued by a government civil registration office, that declares the date, location and cause of a person’s death, as entered in an official register of deaths
Where Can I Find Death Records In South Africa?
Please keep in mind that all birth, marriage and death certificates as well as immigration, naturalization and name change records are kept at the Department of Home Affairs.
For further information please consult the website of the Department of Home Affairs at http://www.dha.gov.za.
How do I find out if someone died in South Africa?
To find out if someone has died in South Africa, you can search the DHA Death Records Database using the person’s full name and date of birth. Alternatively, you can search the Death Notices website, which publishes death notices from newspapers across the country.
Are death certificates public record in South Africa?
The Department of Home Affairs maintains records of births, marriages, and deaths, but these records are not accessible to the public for research purposes.
To access these records, you must submit a written request to the Department of Home Affairs and provide the department with full details of the event.
How long do you wait for a death certificate in South Africa?
It can take anywhere between two and six weeks to obtain a copy of a death certificate. Of course, this depends on how easy it is to find the records in the archives.
❗ Obtaining a vault copy of a death registration document (death report form) is a much more complicated process.
How to find an ID number of a deceased person in South Africa?
An appropriate reason and relationship are required to obtain a death certificate.
The death certificate contains the identity number of the deceased if the person was a citizen or a permanent resident. Keep in mind that you’ll need to take a day’s leave for this as you will be waiting in line for a long time.