The Role of Colonialism in Creating and Perpetuating Statelessness in Southern Africa people in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) states, but they host ‘significant’ populations of people who are stateless or at risk of statelessness.12 As of 2021, 95 countries reported 4.3 million stateless individuals to the UNHCR.13 Due to the counting difficulties and under-reporting, actual estimates are between 12–15 million.14 Not only is it extremely difficult to estimate the actual number of undocumented people, but only a fraction of countries report statelessness statistics. As of 2004, only 30 countries reported statistics on stateless people. By 2021, this had grown to 95 — less than half of all countries. Many of the countries (approximately 20) with known stateless populations do not report statistics. The number of stateless people in Southern Africa is unknown in part because none of the 16 states have procedures to capture data and report statelessness statistics.15 Among the nine African countries where the UNHCR recognises that there are major populations at risk of statelessness, four are in the SADC region: Zimbabwe, South Africa, Madagascar, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).16 The 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons affirms that the fundamental rights of stateless persons must be protected.17 It establishes a set of minimum standards of treatment for stateless people in respect to a number of rights, including education, employment, and housing. It also guarantees stateless people a right to an identity, travel documents and administrative assistance. Only eight of the 16 SADC member states have acceded to the 1954 Convention: Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness aims to prevent statelessness and reduce it over time.18 The 1961 Convention establishes that children should acquire the nationality of the country where they are born if they do not acquire any other nationality and provides safeguards to prevent statelessness in the case of state succession or renunciation of nationality. Only four SADC States have acceded to the 1961 Convention — Angola, Eswatini, Lesotho, and Mozambique. Manby op cit note 2. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ‘Refugee data finder global trends’ Annex Table Statelessness (2021). 14 Laura van Waas & Maria José Recalde ‘Nationality and statelessness’ Oxford Bibliographies (2017). 15 Manby op cit note 2. 16 Citizenship Rights Africa ‘Statelessness’, available at https://citizenshiprightsafrica.org/theme/statelessness/, accessed on 28 November 2022. 17 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons 1954, available at https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetailsII. aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=V-3&chapter=5&Temp=mtdsg2&clang=_en 18 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness 1960, available at https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=V-4&chapter=5&clang=_en 12 13 79