South Africa: LHR briefs Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on statelessness in SA, secures commitment for follow-up
Published: 15/Mar/2021
Source: Lawyers for Human Rights (South Africa)
PRESS STATEMENT
Ms. Primrose Modisane is a South African citizen by birth, however, for the past 16 years she has struggled to get assistance from the Department of Home Affairs with the documentation that she is entitled to. On 9 March 2021, she shared her story with the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, as part of a presentation by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) on the crisis of statelessness in South Africa today, as well as its causes and consequences.
“I am a South African because my granny is a South African. My mother is undocumented therefore I am undocumented. I realized I needed an ID book when I needed to write my matric in 2010. My grandmother and I approached the Home Affairs in Germiston, Vosloorus, Boksburg, Harrison Street. We went there until we ran out of transport money since my granny is a pensioner and we went there until we gave up.
In 2015, I was then advised to approach LHR, where I was advised to do DNAs with my grandmother and my mother to prove that we were related. We did the result in March 2019, the results came out in January 2020. When we went to Harrison Street they said I must wait till level one. They do not do late registration of birth or that I must go to a nearest DHA which is Germiston. When we went to Germiston they said we must come back on Monday. When we went to Germiston on Monday, they said the guy who can help us is not there – he was on leave, we must come back tomorrow, which is today. So I am going to Home Affairs after speaking to you guys.
I am a South African, must I wait another 10 years to get an ID?”
Ms. Primrose Modisane is a South African citizen by birth, however, for the past 16 years she has struggled to get assistance from the Department of Home Affairs with the documentation that she is entitled to. On 9 March 2021, she shared her story with the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, as part of a presentation by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) on the crisis of statelessness in South Africa today, as well as its causes and consequences.
Unfortunately, Primrose’s is not a unique story: it represents the lived realities of thousands of people in South Africa, including children, who are stateless or at risk of statelessness. To be stateless means that one is not recognised as a citizen of any country, which frequently means that most other guaranteed rights are simply inaccessible.
The full extent of this phenomenon in South Africa is unknown due to the lack of a dedicated statelessness determination mechanism or procedures to capture data on the issue. However, indicative estimations, including by the World Bank, suggest that there were over 15 million undocumented people in South Africa in 2018. The figure refers to both citizens and residents of the country. Whilst being undocumented is not synonymous with being stateless, being unable to prove identity and citizenship due to a lack of documentation can place an individual at risk of statelessness.
In its presentation to the Portfolio Committee, LHR highlighted a number of concerns around the persistence of statelessness and South Africa’s response to this challenge to date. First, and in sum, statelessness endures in South Africa for the following reasons:
- barriers to access to citizenship including the lack of universal birth registration and the lack of implementing regulations to key provisions of the Citizenship Act that provide safeguards against childhood statelessness (S2(2) and S4(3));
- barriers to universal birth registration including the requirement that parents must have valid documentation to register the births of their children, as well as the prohibitive cost of DNA tests (R750 per person) which are mandatory for unmarried fathers or foreign parent(s); and
- arbitrary ID blocking which has resulted in citizenship stripping for thousands of South Africans whose IDs are blocked without prior notice, without written reasons and without a right of internal appeal or review.
Second, South Africa has not acceded to the United Nations Conventions on statelessness, however, the government pledged to do so in 2011 and appointed a government statelessness focal point. To this end, LHR further noted for the Portfolio Committee that it is imperative that South Africa establish a dedicated statelessness determination mechanism that will enable the government to measure the true extent of the problem and develop adequate interventions to address it.
LHR provided a number of key recommendations, including South Africa’s accession to the United Nations conventions on statelessness, the adoption of a National Action Plan to end statelessness in South Africa and the removal of arbitrary barriers to citizenship and birth registration.
LHR welcomes with enthusiasm the Portfolio Committee calling on the Department of Home Affairs to provide a comprehensive response to the issues raised by LHR and on the following:
- data on the number of children born to undocumented mothers who are unable to get their births registered because they cannot meet the requirement of valid documentation;
- data on the number of undocumented children that continue to struggle with access to education because of their documentation status;
- statistics on the number of blocked ID cases and the criteria or standard operation procedure used to determine when an ID is blocked and how the block is to be resolved; and
- measures taken to ensure that unmarried fathers are able to register the births of their children on an equal basis to mothers and married fathers and measures to mitigate the prohibitive cost of DNA tests for those that cannot afford them.
As part of its work in this space, LHR supports the UNHCR #IBELONG Campaign, launched in 2014 with a goal to eradicate statelessness in 10 years by 2024. In this last stretch of the campaign, South Africa is called upon to re-double its efforts and with the support of the UNHCR and civil society the eradication of statelessness in South Africa is possible.
“When I go to a government office, I go there as of right. I am not going to ask for favours. I am going there because I am entitled in terms of the Constitution to say : “You are a government servant. You are to serve my interest. Your right to be behind that counter is only to serve me.” Not to sift and bypass and say “go stand at counter number three… or come back next week Tuesday. We do not deal with people of your category today.” Justice Kriegler in the #iBelong video on Primrose’s story.
Read original, links to other resources including video: https://www.lhr.org.za/lhr-news/press-statement-lhr-briefs-portfolio-committee-on-home-affairs-on-statelessness-in-sa-secures-commitment-for-follow-up-2/