Lawyers representing a group of people challenging the current Citizenship Act say the Home Affairs Department has prejudiced their clients. The group’s lawyers argued in the Constitutional Court that the current act took away their citizenship even though they were born to South African parents outside South Africa before 2013 when it came into effect.
The group wants the court to confirm an order of the High Court which found sections of the act unconstitutional and invalid.
The group’s lawyer Isabel Goodman says his clients want fairness.
“We would press that we require the declaration that our clients are South African citizens because that’s the thing that the Home Affairs is withholding from them and continues to brandish as a reason to continue not to give them an ID document, a passport and the various things they require in order to step out into society as full citizens.”
Hearing tomorrow 10am: Do sections 2(1)(a) and (b) of the Citizenship Act infringe the constitutional rights of individuals born outside of South Africa to a South African parent, before 1 January 2013, by not providing for the retention or acquisition of citizenship? pic.twitter.com/O2b3zy3Asq
— Constitutional Court (@ConCourtSA) February 12, 2020
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