Believe it or not, even in 2023, many South Africans have their citizenship taken away against their will. The Supreme Court of Appeal is about to consider the constitutionality of a provision which authorises this unacceptable denial of one’s birthright. We hope the court holds this outdated provision to be invalid.
This, in our view, is part of the historical backdrop behind the enactment of a strong citizenship right in the Constitution: section 20 proclaims in no uncertain terms that “no citizen may be deprived of citizenship”. In the court papers, a Mr Plaatjes describes his experience of falling in love with his wife while on a working trip overseas. To accommodate her desire to live near her family, he moved to the UK and eventually naturalised. To his horror, when he came to renew his passport, he was told that he had lost his South African citizenship.
It may be responded that section 6 does allow South Africans to retain their citizenship through applying for the Minister of Home Affairs’ permission. Yet, it appears that affected South Africans were either unaware of this arcane provision or had been provided with flawed legal advice .In our view, section 6 is constitutionally invalid also due to offering no criteria on the basis of which the minister should decide citizenship retention applications.
The reasons for this change lie in globalisation and the fact that for an increasing number of people, mobility across borders is a feature of their lives. Employment opportunities may arise in countries far removed from one’s place of birth or one may meet a partner from another country and seek to relocate.