{"id":43269,"date":"2026-07-13T16:05:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T14:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/?p=43269"},"modified":"2026-07-16T16:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:10:13","slug":"south-africa-department-of-home-affairs-found-to-be-in-contempt-for-defying-court-order-to-grant-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/south-africa-department-of-home-affairs-found-to-be-in-contempt-for-defying-court-order-to-grant-citizenship\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa: Department of Home Affairs found to be in contempt for defying court order to grant citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the recent decision of Minister of Home Affairs and Another v Sakharov (2024-044391) [2026] ZAGPPHC 648 (22 June 2026), the Pretoria High Court had to determine whether the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) could rescind a Court Order directing it to grant citizenship to Mr Mikhail Sakharov, a Russian national in possession of South African permanent residence permit, and whether the DHA\u2019s continued refusal to comply with the relevant Court Order amounted to contempt of court.<\/p>\n<p>Authors: Lee Masuku &amp; Taryn York<\/p>\n<p><strong>At a glance<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In Minister of Home Affairs and Another v Sakharov (2024-044391) [2026] ZAGPPHC 648 (22 June 2026), the Pretoria High Court had to determine whether the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) could rescind a Court Order directing it to grant citizenship, and whether the DHA\u2019s continued refusal to comply with the relevant Court Order amounted to contempt of court.<\/li>\n<li>The court confirmed that citizenship is a right, not a discretion. Therefore, once a foreign national holds a permanent residence permit and qualifies for South African citizenship by naturalisation based on the requirements in the Citizenship Act 88 of 1995 (Citizenship Act), the DHA is legally obliged to grant citizenship.<\/li>\n<li>The DHA cannot impose additional procedural hurdles that are not prescribed by the Citizenship Act or its regulations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Facts<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sakharov was granted permanent residence in South Africa in December 2013. It was common cause that he was also married to a South African citizen for more than five years. In November 2023, Sakharov attended the DHA\u2019s offices to enquire about the requirements for applying for South African citizenship. He was informed that only an application to verify his permanent residence permit could be submitted at that stage and his citizenship application was refused outright.<\/p>\n<p>In April 2024, Sakharov instituted a review application in the High Court to challenge the DHA\u2019s refusal of his citizenship application. The matter was heard on the unopposed motion roll on 9 September 2024, and the court granted an order, amongst other things, declaring him a South African citizen by naturalisation (Court Order). The Court Order also directed the DHA to register his birth, issue him with written confirmation of his citizenship, and provide him with an identity document within 30 days.<\/p>\n<p>Despite being served with the Court Order, the DHA did not comply. Instead, the DHA applied to have the Court Order set aside (rescinded), arguing that Sakharov\u2019s review application had not been properly served on it. In a counter-application, Sakharov sought to have the DHA held in contempt of the Court Order.<\/p>\n<p>Read further: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com\/en\/news\/publications\/2026\/South-Africa\/Immigration-Law\/Immigration-law-alert-13-july-Department-of-Home-Affairs-found-to-be-in-contempt-for-defying-court-order-to-grant-citizenship\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com\/en\/news\/publications\/2026\/South-Africa\/Immigration-Law\/Immigration-law-alert-13-july-Department-of-Home-Affairs-found-to-be-in-contempt-for-defying-court-order-to-grant-citizenship<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the recent decision of Minister of Home Affairs and Another v Sakharov (2024-044391) [2026] ZAGPPHC 648 (22 June 2026), the Pretoria High Court had to determine whether the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) could rescind a Court Order directing it to grant citizenship to Mr Mikhail Sakharov, a Russian national in possession of South [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","region-south-africa","type-blog-posts","item-year-699","item-theme-id-documents-and-passports","item-theme-naturalisation-and-marriage"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43269","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=43269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43270,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43269\/revisions\/43270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}