The Court in this matter referred to the need for the reform of the law governing guardianship and custody of such children. Favard v Favard 1951 SR 95 In this case it was ruled that a child takes domicile of his or her guardian. This guardian is usually the father so that the child’s domicile is the country where the father is domiciled at the time of the child’s birth. However, according to Zimbabwean law, an illegitimate child takes the domicile of its mother by virtue of the fact that an illegitimate child’s mother is the legal guardian of that illegitimate child. Comment Section 12 (2) of the BDRA provides that the Registrar of birth shall not enter the name of any person as the father of an illegitimate child except upon the joint request of that person and the mother and this limits the role of the father of such a child to the extent that they might be less keen to even cooperate in obtaining a birth registration for the said child. Dhanabakium v Subramanian and Another 1943 AD 160 In the case, Watermeyer JA stated that though the mother and not the father of an illegitimate child is generally speaking the natural guardian of the child…a person who is a minor is disqualified from being a guardian. Comment This means that if the mother is a minor, she cannot stand as a guardian to her child. In determining whether one is a minor or not, a birth certificate is an essential document. Birth Registration Research Report/2007 27