The Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security is advising mothers who have not registered the birth of their children to do so, even in the absence of the fathers.

According to Sakeus Kadhikwa, the ministry's Public Relations Officer, mothers who fail to register their babies in their surnames risk their children becoming stateless.

In some cultures in Namibia, babies are registered under their father's surname. But for this to happen, the father needs to give consent, but sometimes he is nowhere to be found.