South Africa: Six distinctions but no ID: Top matriculant’s hope of becoming a doctor crushed
Published: 17/Apr/2025
Source: GroundUp (Cape Town)
“My mother was a citizen, yet I cannot get an ID” says Emmanuel Ndlovu
By Kimberly Mutandiro
After achieving six distinctions in his matric exams, Emmanuel Ndlovu planned to go to university and become a doctor.
But this has been put on hold because he does not have a birth certificate or ID.
The law in South Africa gives children born to at least one South African parent the right to citizenship, but thousands of people still battle daily with bureaucracy at Home Affairs, says Lawyers for Human Rights.
Johannesburg matriculant Emmanuel Ndlovu had dreams of enrolling at the University of Cape Town or the University of Witwatersrand to pursue a career in medicine this year. But though he achieved six distinctions and a merit pass above 70%, 17-year-old Ndlovu is still sitting at home because he does not have a birth certificate or an ID.
“My peers are moving on with their lives, but I’m stuck,” he says.
Ndlovu and his four brothers do not have identity documents because their mother, a South African citizen, discovered that she was sharing an ID number with another person. She has struggled to rectify this for years but the Home Affairs system blocked her from registering her children. Ndlovu says he never knew his father.
He has been able to attend primary and high school without a birth certificate, because his mother could present his clinic card as proof of identity. To register and collect his matric exam results, Ndlovu managed to get proof of his birth from Leratong Hospital in Krugersdorp.