Hollywood actor joins thousands celebrating SA citizenship win: “We will always be South Africans at heart” says Stelio Savante
As South Africans worldwide celebrate the return of their beloved SA citizenship (which many had inadvertently lost when they acquired second citizenships), Hollywood actor and producer Stelio Savante – who has over 135 international credits to his name – sums up the joy and gratitude that he and thousands of South Africans abroad are feeling […]
As South Africans worldwide celebrate the return of their beloved SA citizenship (which many had inadvertently lost when they acquired second citizenships), Hollywood actor and producer Stelio Savante – who has over 135 international credits to his name – sums up the joy and gratitude that he and thousands of South Africans abroad are feeling today…
“This morning, I gratefully wake to celebrate with the tens of thousands of fellow South Africans who’d unnecessarily and inadvertently been deprived of their citizenship courtesy of a flawed and contradictory law that violated international human rights.
Like so many others, Stelio – who hails from Cape Town – had been shocked and devastated when he discovered that he had been stripped of his South African citizenship. Despite his US success – acting in TV series and features that have accumulated almost $400million in world-wide box office proceeds, and landing leading roles in billion dollar grossing video game franchises – the American Movie Award winner and SAG Award nominee (SA’s first male nominee in this category), still carries South Africa proudly in his heart and visits whenever he can.
“South Africans are a proud, loving and hospitable people. We love our country, we love our countrymen, we are proud of our nation’s growth, our nation’s contributions to the sciences and the arts. We are grateful for the way that God has Blessed our nation with so many natural resources and a wealth of beauty from coastline to mountain top, from desert to the grasslands.”
Stelio, who is currently starring opposite Academy award nominee Matt Dillon as the charming Portuguese Mayor Alvares in Running for Grace on Netflix, says:
“We were born and raised in South Africa, we will always be South Africans at heart. And we are always going out of our way to employ, refer and celebrate other South Africans. Their victories are our victories. And this victory is both a relief and a celebration. An answer to prayer.
“Thank you to the DA for staying the course. Thank you to our Supreme Court.”
Across the world South Africans have been elated that the Democratic Alliance’s Shadow Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Adrian Roos took their case to court, and never gave up. When the High Court failed them, the DA and Roos persisted and took the matter to the Supreme Court, which today said the law was unconstitutional, and reinstated SA citizenship for all those who lost it.
One of the most elated was SA expat Hayley Reichert, who lives in the UK and campaigns tirelessly for citizen activation in South Africa. “THEY WON THE CITIZENSHIP COURT CASE ???? I literally jumped out my chair and shouted in the office when DA deputy shadow minister Adrian Roos sent me the good news!!!” she told SAPeople.
SAPeople and the DA, with the DA Abroad, had partnered on a non-partisan petition to raise enough signatures to initially get the matter presented in Parliament.
“It was an issue trying to get signatures because people were nervous,” remembers Hayley. “But this is a point I am constantly trying to explain to my fellow South Africans: most people want to shy away from politics whilst simultaneously demanding things must change. I cannot emphasise enough that things can only change through political means. I explain to every South African I speak to, about how valuable it is to be an active citizen and how, through simply using my laptop, phone, internet connectivity and global network of South Africans as well as building relationships with political parties and journalists, I have helped tens of thousands of South Africans in numerous way over the past decade simply by finding my voice and choosing to be the change.”
Don’t miss Stelio Savante in the upcoming Netflix Series Captain Fall, and guest starring in the Dick Wolf series FBI on CBS. The South African filmmaker is also currently portraying Moses in the biblical epic The Chosen on Netflix & Peacock, the highest crowd-funded project of all time, with over 500 million downloads.
Don’t Miss: Stelio Savante on making it in Hollywood and the SA circle in LA that helps ‘mekaar’
Read more: SA Supreme Court strikes down loss of citizenship law