Zimbabwe: Petho v Minister of Home Affairs and Another
Published: 8/Oct/2002
Source: Supreme Court of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe: Petho v Minister of Home Affairs and Another (07/06) ((07/06)) [2002] ZWSC 80
SANDURA JA: This is an appeal against a judgment of the High Court which dismissed the appellants application, brought in terms of s 3(1) of the Class Actions Act [Chapter 8:17] (the Act), for leave to institute a class action on behalf of the following class of persons
(a) all persons who are citizens of Zimbabwe by birth; and
(2) either of whose parents was or both of whose parents were born in a foreign country; and
(3) who have never applied for and/or been granted the citizenship of another country.
The background facts are as follows. Before December 1984 the law of Zimbabwe permitted dual citizenship. However, that state of affairs changed on 1 December 1984 when the Citizenship of Zimbabwe Act, No. 23 of 1984 (now [Chapter 4:01]) abolished dual citizenship and, in terms of s 9(7), provided that a citizen of Zimbabwe who, on 1 December 1984, was also a citizen of a foreign country would cease to be a citizen of Zimbabwe one year after that date unless, on or before the expiry of that period, he renounced his foreign citizenship in the form and manner prescribed.
Subsequently, it transpired that the renunciation forms signed by the citizens of Zimbabwe intending to renounce their foreign citizenship did not have the desired effect. That was so because the law of Zimbabwe at the time did not require a person intending to renounce his foreign citizenship to do so in accordance with the law of the foreign country in question. See Carr v Registrar-General 2000 (2) ZLR 433 (S).
Read further on ZIMLII: https://www.zimlii.org/zw/judgment/supreme-court/2002/80