Zimbabwean parents lose SA citizenship bid for children

The Limpopo High Court (Polokwane) has found that children born in South Africa to foreign national parents are not automatically entitled to South African citizenship. A Pretoria News report says the court then turned down an application by Zimbabwean parents for their three children to be issued with SA birth certificates. The parents wanted the court to set aside a decision by the Department of Home Affairs, which refused to issue the children with birth certificates. The parents – Zimbabwean citizens currently staying in SA – argued the department’s refusal was unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid. All their children were given unabridged certificates for non-citizens. The father said he was in SA on a work permit and the children’s mother was his partner.

The parents had approached the department to apply for a South African birth certificate for each of the children. The Pretoria News says their application was prompted by the fact the children were all born in SA and did not have Zimbabwean citizenship or nationality. They were told the only assistance they could get from the department was to be issued with unabridged birth certificates for non-South African citizens for their children in order for them to go to Zimbabwe so that the authorities there could issue them with Zimbabwean birth certificates. The father said since he worked in SA and the children were born here, they were entitled to South African citizenship. However, the department said it was difficult to issue a South African birth certificate for citizenship where grounds for citizens has not been established, as in this case, in terms of either birth or naturalisation. Children born of permanent residents follow their parents' status, the department said, adding the applicants were from Zimbabwe and had not renounced their citizenship. The department also said citizenship could not be conferred on children of permit holders for work approved for that purposes, or for study or holiday purposes. It asked the court to note the Constitutional Court’s findings earlier that citizenship was not just a legal status, but it went to the core of a person’s identity and their sense of belonging. The court said the basic principle of South African citizenship was that a child followed the citizenship or nationality of his or her parents. If one parent was a South African citizen, the child would be a citizen by birth. The court turned down the application and said it was best to register the children in Zimbabwe.

Judgment

Full Pretoria News report in The Star