South Africa: After nine years and two court orders, Daniela Rodriguez can finally chase her volleyball dream
Published: 25/Aug/2025
Source: Daily Maverick (South Africa)
By Lerato Mutsila
Sixteen-year-old aspiring national volleyball player Daniela Rodriguez has spent more than half of her life waiting for the South African government to recognise her as a citizen. This meant that for 11 years, Daniela could not do the thing most South African kids take for granted.
Born in Cape Town in 2008 to Cuban parents, Daniela grew up calling South Africa home. Over the years, she grew to love volleyball, with dreams of one day representing South Africa at the highest level. But unlike other young athletes, her path was blocked by something entirely unrelated to her sporting talent — she had no country to call her own.
Under Cuban law, Daniela was disqualified from Cuban citizenship because of her parents’ permanent emigrant status. While she was born in South Africa, she was never recognised as a South African citizen either, because neither of her parents was South African.
Daniela essentially fell through the cracks of nationality laws and citizenship provisions. This left her in legal limbo: stateless, invisible to the system, and unable to do things most people take for granted.
Her situation should have changed in 2014 when the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria declared that the then five-year-old was a South African citizen and ordered the Department of Home Affairs to enter her details into the national population register, to issue her with a South African identity number and a new birth certificate reflecting the same. Two years later, in 2016, the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld the High Court judgment and directed the department to comply with this order by 6 November 2016.
“It’s been years of fighting and we are still here asking the department to do its job,” said Daniela’s mother, Kenia Rodriguez.
However, on Thursday, 14 August 2025, Daniela’s citizenship struggles finally changed for the better.