Chapter 5:02
BIRTHS AND DEATHS REGISTRATION ACT
25. Registration of birth, still-birth or death after twelve months.
PART IV
GENERAL
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27.
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Regulations.
Offences and penalties.
Registration of birth or death which occurred before 20.6.1986.
Savings.
AN ACT to provide for the registration of births and deaths in Zimbabwe and to
provide for matters incidental thereto or connected therewith.
[Date of commencement: 20th June, 1986.]
PART I
PRELIMINARY
1
Short title
This Act may be cited as the Births and Deaths Registration Act [Chapter 5:02].
2
Interpretation
(1) In this Act—
“adopter” means a person who has adopted a child in terms of the Children’s Protection
and Adoption Act [Chapter 5:06];
“born” does not include still-born;
“bury” means to deposit in the ground or cremate a dead body;
“entry”, in relation to any register kept in terms of this Act, includes any information
contained in any form, certificate or other document forming part of that register;
“medical practitioner” means a person registered as a medical practitioner in terms of
the Health Professions Act [Chapter 27:19];
“midwife” means a person registered as a midwife in terms of the Health Professions Act
[Chapter 27:19];
“Minister” means the Minister of Home Affairs or any other Minister to whom the
President may, from time to time, assign the administration of this Act;
“registrar” means the person appointed to be a registrar of births and deaths for a district
and includes a deputy registrar and an assistant registrar;
“Registrar-General” means the officer referred to in paragraph (a) of section three;
“responsible person” means the person whose duty it is to give notice of a birth, stillbirth or death in terms of section eleven, twenty or twenty-two, as the case may be;
“still-birth” means any child which has issued forth from its mother after the twentyeighth week of pregnancy and which did not, after being completely expelled from its
mother, breathe or show any signs of life.
(2) For the purposes of this Act, a person shall be regarded as—
(a) born out of wedlock if his parents were not married to each other at the time of his
conception or birth and have not subsequently married each other;
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