The state has no right to strip South Africans of their birthright – even if they acquire the citizenship of another country. On 13 June the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruled that Section 6(1)(a) of the Citizenship Act was unconstitutional and therefore invalid.
This legislation has been relied on since apartheid, to strip exiled freedom fighters and Bantustan residents of their South African citizenship. In the Democratic Alliance v The Minister of Home Affairs and another, the SCA ruled that the Minister of Home Affairs cannot deprive citizens of their citizenship, even if they fail to seek permission from the minister to acquire dual citizenship.
Section 6(1)(a) of the South African Citizenship Act stipulates that a South African citizen is automatically stripped of their citizenship if they acquire the citizenship of another country, unless they first seek and receive permission from the Minister of Home Affairs to do so.
The DA argued that S 6(1)(a) is inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid from 6 October 1995; all people who had lost their South African citizenship in terms of the act on or after that date are South African citizens; and all persons who so lost their citizenship may apply to the Minister for a certificate of citizenship. The Minister denied that S6(1)(a) is unconstitutional and contended that the loss of citizenship results from a voluntary act by the citizen, not the state. The Constitution provides in S20 that ‘no citizen may be deprived of citizenship’.
Judge Dumisani Zondi said that citizenship in South Africa has a controversial history because many black Africans were denied their citizenship through unfair and discriminatory colonial and apartheid laws. He further stated that citizenship is not just about legal status; it goes to the core of identity, a sense of belonging in a community and, in the context of xenophobia, to their security of person.
Deprivation of, or interference with, a person’s citizenship status affects their private and family life, their choice of home, jobs, schools and full participation ‘in the political sphere and exercise freedom of movement’. The respondents were unable to point to a legitimate government purpose which s 6(1)(a) seeks to achieve. The respondents merely underscored the arbitrariness and irrationality of the legislation. A citizen may renounce his or her SA citizenship. The Minister may deprive a South African with dual nationality of citizenship, if such citizen has been sentenced to a certain period of imprisonment, or it is in the public interest to do so. Section 6(1)(a) cannot be based on a proposition that dual citizenship is inherently undesirable.