South Africa: Revocation and loss of citizenship is a painful double-edged sword
Published: 22/Jan/2025
Source: Business Day (Johannesburg)
Home affairs minister needs to make informed decisions surrounding complex topic of citizenship
by Claudia Pizzocri
The right to a nationality is enshrined in article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognised in many other international and regional human rights instruments.
Under international law depriving someone of their nationality is only permitted under narrow circumstances. In most countries and jurisdictions the minimum requirements are that there must be a legal basis, doing so must serve a legitimate purpose and the process must be proportionate, adequate and necessary.
In line with international standards, section 20 of the SA constitution states that “no citizen may be deprived of citizenship”, and the SA Citizenship Act provides the legislative framework within which to uphold this right, including the so-called “special circumstances” under which SA citizenship can be revoked by ministerial order, on the proviso that nobody may be rendered stateless by this action.
Section 8(2) of the act contemplates deprivation when the citizen is also a citizen of another country, if the home affairs minister is “satisfied that (a) such citizen has at any time been sentenced in any country to a period of imprisonment of not less than 12 months for any offence which, if it was committed outside the republic, would also have constituted an offence in the republic; or (b) that it is in the public interest.”
Painful injustice
On December 6, before wrapping up the year and his first semester as home affairs minister, among numerous upbeat media statements, social media posts and even celebratory dances lauding the progress made by his TeamHomeAffairs, the DA’s Leon Schreiber released a statement announcing the deportation of Janusz Walus, the Polish extremist who served a long prison sentence for assassinating Chris Hani.
News of the deportation sparked immediate controversy. For Hani’s widow, his family and all other parties that had for years fiercely opposed his release on parole, it was a painful injustice carried out in the name of the rule of law.