French Administration (Cannes)

I wonder if someone could possibly advise me on the following:

I have recently moved to France, and hold a Dutch passport. Trying to open bank accounts, obtain a CMU seems to be incredibly complex and, despite holding an EU passport, I have been asked to submit my birth certificate (South African) together with an official translated transcript of the birth certificate. Does anyone know whether the translated document has to be legalised or apostilled.

In addition to this, I have also been asked to submit a "acte d'état civil" which again I have to get legalised: Has anyone heard of this before?

Last question, would I have to obtain these from Pretoria?

I would really appreciate any feedback

Renee