Court: Children born in SA to foreign parents not entitled to citizenship
A court has determined that children born in South Africa to foreign parents are not automatically granted South African citizenship.
The Polokwane High Court rejected a request from Zimbabwean parents to issue South African birth certificates for their children.
CHILDREN BORN IN SA TO FOREIGN PARENTS
IOL reported in 2023 that a Zimbabwean couple wanted the Department of Home Affairs to issue their children with South African birth certificates.
The parents who are in the country on a working permit have children born between 2010 and 2016. Their three children were given unabridged birth certificates for non-citizens.
The parents argued that the department’s refusal was unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid. They were prompted by the fact their children were all born in South Africa and didn’t have Zimbabwean citizenship or nationality.
They were told the only assistance they could get from the department was to be issued with unabridged birth certificates for non-South African citizens.
Attorney Issac Moselane confirmed to Capricorn FM in 2023 that a child born to foreign nationals cannot be issued with a South African birth certificate, even though the child was born in South Africa.
Immigration expert Gary Eisenberg tells eNCA: “Before the 1st of January 2013, if a person was born in South Africa of a single permanent resident parent, that person was born a South African resident.”