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‘Brazenly incompetent’ Home Affairs ordered to stop denying South Africans born abroad citizenship

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Dear MyPE

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the ruling of the Constitutional Court that confirms citizenship of persons born outside South Africa where one of the parents is a South African citizen.

Previously Home Affairs had chosen to interpret section 2(1)(b) of the amended Citizenship Act to deny citizenship to persons born outside of South Africa before 1 January 2013 where one of the parents is a South African citizen.

In its judgment the Court slammed the “brazenly incompetent” conduct of Home Affairs whereby applicants “have been dragged from the proverbial pillar to post by the government’s intransigence, indifference and inefficiency”.

The DA has previously questioned Home Affairs in parliament on why the papers have not been filed for over two years in this case and who has been held accountable. It is this same indifference and inefficiency experienced daily by South Africans applying for unabridged and vault copies of birth and marriage certificates. They are forced to put their lives on hold at the hands of the Incapable State and wait between six and 24 months for these applications to be processed.

The Court further stated that “the systematic act of stripping millions of black South Africans of their citizenship was one of the most pernicious policies of the apartheid regime, which left many as foreigners in the land of [their] birth.” While the ANC Government has been trying to suppress the right to citizenship in countless cases it is the DA that has raised the plight of hundreds of thousands of undocumented South African children that leaves them stateless in their own land.

The Democratic Alliance through DA Abroad has been fighting for thousands of South Africans applying for citizenship of another country being unconstitutionally stripped of their South African citizenship in the process.

The DA has demanded action where an applicant and her minor child have not been granted citizenship a year since a court order. Home Affairs have finally committed to implement the order by 31 July 2020.

Justice delayed is justice denied. The DA will be keeping a close watching brief on these court orders to ensure that South African identity numbers, documents and birth certificates are issued to the affected citizens as soon as possible.

We will continue to fight for the fundamental right of South Africans to citizenship and the rights that go with it – access to decent healthcare, freedom of movement and the ability to work.

Regards

Adrian Roos MP
DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Home Affairs

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