By Bongani Nkosi<\/p>\n
Johannesburg – Home Affairs has been \u00adaccused of violating human rights after refusing to grant citizenship to children born to undocumented mothers, but whose fathers are South African. In a scathing judgment delivered at the North Gauteng High Court, Acting Judge Moses Mphaga has ordered the department to \u201cforthwith register the birth\u201d of a 4-year-old child of a Joburg father and a \u00adChinese female immigrant whose stay in the country is illegal.<\/p>\n
The boy was born at Flora Clinic, near Roodepoort, in 2013. After his birth, Home Affairs officials told the parents that his birth would not be registered due to the mother\u2019s illegal status.<\/p>\n
The parents, whose attempts to marry were also barred by Home Affairs, \u00adbelieved there was no reason for the department to deny their child citi\u00adzenship because he was born in South Africa, and one parent was a citizen. Judge Mphaga found that the department relied on an \u201cinternal policy\u201d adopted in 2014 to block the registration of children born out of such relationships.<\/p>\n