Why Some Children Born In South Africa Are Being Repatriated To Zimbabwe

South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs has reaffirmed that children born in South Africa to foreign parents are not automatically granted citizenship.

Under the South African Constitution, the Citizenship Act and its Amendment Act, citizenship is obtained by birth, descent or naturalisation. The basic principle is that a child follows the citizenship or nationality of their parents.

If one parent is a South African citizen, the child is a citizen by birth. A foreign child adopted by South African citizens becomes a citizen by descent, while a naturalised citizen has met the legal requirements for naturalisation. Children born to permanent residents assume their parents’ status.

All children born in South Africa must be registered at birth. The “record notice of birth” should be taken to the parents’ country of origin for registration and issuance of a passport.

If the parents choose to remain in South Africa, the child may then be issued a derivative permanent residence permit on application.

The challenge arises with children whose parents are in the country without proper documentation. Because their parents have not regularised their stay, the children effectively become stateless.

The issue has been in the news amid a wave of mass action against undocumented immigrants, which has forced some families to leave South Africa for their own safety.

Among those affected are teen siblings Lorraine and Lawrence Ncube, aged 18 and 16. Born and raised in South Africa to undocumented Zimbabwean parents, neither sibling has South African citizenship. They say being sent to Zimbabwe means leaving behind the only home they have ever known.

Their father fled after a mob chased the family from their home in Seshego village, outside Polokwane, last week. The siblings and their mother are now among those being repatriated to Zimbabwe.

Lorraine is leaving with her young daughter, whose father is South African.

Last week, the provincial manager for the Department in Limpopo, Albert Matsaung, said officials investigated the case after reports suggested the child could face deportation with her mother.

“We’ve investigated the matter that was presented to us this morning at around 10:00. What we have noted is that, number one, there—there are two parents that gave birth to a child,” said Matsaung.

“Both parents are non-South African citizens—they are Zimbabweans. Now, what it means is that the child that they have, who is an 18-year-old, is a non-South African citizen.

“Then the parents of the child must make sure that this child is assisted to acquire the documentation that is linked to the country of origin, in this case, Zimbabwe.

“But now, on top of that, the 18-year-old has got a child. And that child, initially, when it was presented to us, it was that—it was a child of a South African citizen.

“We took it upon ourselves as Home Affairs and immediately investigated the matter. We ended up directly engaging the alleged father.”

According to Matsaung, the man alleged to be the father of Lorraine’s daughter is South African but has never been to Home Affairs.

“The alleged father—we’ve managed to communicate with the alleged father, we tried to check as to the process that this alleged father has followed.

“One, I can confirm that the alleged father is a South African citizen. I cannot be able to disclose the name of the South African citizen…

“But I then advised that one of the issues here is that we check first if the father has done his role in terms of making sure that he visited our offices.

“Confirmation that we are receiving is that the father has never been to Home Affairs. The father has never been to Home Affairs.

“The father took the street advice. And the street advice that was given to him was that he needs to go and look for a DNA test, which is not the case.” - PINDULA

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