Deported boy finally an SA citizen
Published: 3/Jun/2016
Source: The Citizen (South Africa)
The judge expressed concern over the manner in which home affairs had dealt with the matter.
By Ilse de Lange
A 13-year-old schoolboy who was at one stage deported from South Africa because home affairs refused to register his birth, has finally been declared a South African citizen following a long court battle.
Acting Judge Harshila Kooevertjie granted an order, declaring the boy a South African citizen and ordering home affairs to register his birth in the population register.
Nicole Breytenbach of the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Child Law was appointed as curator to launch the application on behalf of the child, after home affairs for years simply ignored all pleas for assistance.
The boy was born at the Tembisa Hospital in August 2002, to a Zambian mother and a South African father.
He was issued with a birth certificate, which was later blocked in 2010, with home affairs relying on a 2008 ruling that the mother could not prove that her children were born in South Africa.
The mother has been battling for years to obtain a visa for herself and to have her son declared a South African citizen.
Read further on The Citizen website.