{"id":20911,"date":"2018-12-01T15:29:32","date_gmt":"2018-12-01T15:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/?p=20911"},"modified":"2018-12-02T15:32:15","modified_gmt":"2018-12-02T15:32:15","slug":"south-africa-citizenship-act-judgement-what-it-means-for-michelle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/south-africa-citizenship-act-judgement-what-it-means-for-michelle\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa: Citizenship Act Judgement: What it means for Michelle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday\u2019s Supreme Court\u00a0judgement<\/a>\u00a0on the interpretation of South Africa\u2019s Citizenship Act could result in a swathe of young people \u2013 those born and raised in South Africa with foreign parents \u2013 being able to apply to citizenship. We speak to Michelle,* who is hopeful that she can finally be recognized in South Africa, the only country she has ever known.<\/p>\n

Upon meeting her, Michelle \u2018seems South African\u2019. Born and raised in Cape Town, Michelle went through South African primary and secondary school where she \u2018learnt about our history and did everything South African learners do\u2019. She later enrolled to study teaching at Stellenbosch University. But her university career was cut short in her second year when her documentation became an issue, rendering her \u2018illegal\u2019 in the only country she\u2019s ever known. Now, at the age of 23, Michelle\u2019s hopes have been raised by a recent Supreme Court Judgement on citizenship law in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Stateless in South Africa<\/p>\n

Michelle\u2019s parents fled to South Africa from Angola in 1992. Having never had issues with documentation and using her South African birth certificate for schooling purposes, Michelle describes how she \u2018felt truly South African\u2019. In 2013, the South African government withdrew all Angolans\u2019 refugee statuses. Michelle and her family were left undocumented as the Angolan authorities did not recognize them to be Angolan.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, without documentation, Michelle had to drop out of her existence in South Africa. ‘I had to leave Stellenbosch University. All of my friends started graduating, finding jobs, moving on. I could not do anything \u2013 I was at home and I couldn\u2019t find jobs or contribute to my household. I felt completely lost.’<\/p>\n

Changes in Citizenship Law<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2013, the South African Citizenship Act was amended to allow children born in South Africa \u2013 regardless of their parents\u2019 nationality \u2013 to apply for South African citizenship upon turning eighteen. The applicant would have to provide a birth certificate, and prove that they had remained in South Africa during their life. \u2018I kept googling this Citizenship Act,\u2019 explains Michelle. \u2018It spoke to me because it said, if you are born in South Africa to non-South African parents and you turn eighteen you can apply for South African citizenship.\u2019 However, Michelle was not able to apply for South African citizenship, because the Department of Home Affairs claimed that this provision of the amended citizenship law was only applicable to those born after the change in law. In other words, only children turning eighteen in 2031 would be able to apply for South African citizenship through this new provision. Upon discovering this, Michelle\u2019s hopes to legalize herself were dashed. \u2018I was filled with anxiety because I could not see my future. I still had no way of proving my own identity.\u2019<\/p>\n

Read further:\u00a0http:\/\/scalabrini.org.za\/citizenship-act-judgement-what-it-means-for-michelle\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday\u2019s Supreme Court\u00a0judgement\u00a0on the interpretation of South Africa\u2019s Citizenship Act could result in a swathe of young people \u2013 those born and raised in South Africa with foreign parents \u2013 being able to apply to citizenship. We speak to Michelle,* who is hopeful that she can finally be recognized in South Africa, the only country […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","region-south-africa","type-news-articles","item-year-642","item-theme-acquisition-by-children","item-theme-acquisition-of-nationality"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20912,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20911\/revisions\/20912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}