Realising the Child’s Right to a Nationality in South Africa past the first generation born outside of Mozambique34 and South Africa does not implement its legal safeguards against statelessness, as will be illustrated later in the article. C The New South Africa (Post-1994) The advent of democracy was marked by the adoption of the 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (‘Constitution’), which centres values like human dignity, equality and a common South African citizenship as founding principles of the state.35 With this, South Africa changed from a system of parliamentary sovereignty to a constitutional democracy based on transformative constitutionalism.36 It has since been the job of government and the people to realise these constitutional values in every area of society. Section 20 of the Constitution protects the right not to be deprived of citizenship.37 Importantly, the right to administrative justice was introduced, protecting the right to administrative action that is ‘lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair’, making it finally possible to hold decision-makers to account.38 The seminal breakthrough for citizenship rights was the significant amendment to the South African Citizenship Act in 2010,39 after considerable discussion in Parliament on the effects of colonialisation and apartheid on the acquisition of citizenship for people living in South Africa, particularly those previously excluded.40 The 2010 amendment introduced measures to remove the differentiation between citizens by birth and citizens by descent and introduced a provision for the children of non-citizens to become South African citizens if they were born in South Africa and are still resident there at the age of majority.41 A provision of citizenship by birth for children born stateless on the territory had been introduced in 1995 and was preserved in the 2010 amendment. 42 The 1995 Act (as amended) is still not ideal but includes the legal safeguards necessary to end childhood statelessness in South Africa. Despite the new legal dispensation, there are important developments in the new South Africa that hamper the effect of the progressive laws. The most notable development has been the rise of xenophobia, which has crept into policy and all other legislation which affects documentation of children, such as the Births and Deaths Registration Act No 51 of 1992 (‘BDRA’), the Refugees Act No 130 of 1998 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Patrícia Jerónimo, Report on Citizenship Law: Mozambique (Country Report No 2019/06, GLOBALCIT, 2019) 28; Bronwen Manby, Citizenship Law in Africa: A Comparative Study (African Minds 2016) 53. Constitution (n 3) ss 1, 3. It is worth noting that the 1993 interim constitution phrased the right relating to citizenship differently: see Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1993 (No longer in force) (‘Interim Constitution’). Mashele Rapatsa, ‘Transformative Constitutionalism in South Africa: 20 Years of Democracy’ (2014) 5(27(2)) Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences 887. The Interim Constitution (n 35) has a similar provision. Constitution (n 3) s 33. South African Citizenship Amendment Act No 17 of 2010 (Republic of South Africa) (‘2010 Citizenship Amendment Act’). See the second reading debate of the South African Citizenship Amendment Bill 2010 in Republic of South Africa, Parliamentary Debates, National Assembly, 16 September 2010, 104. 2010 Citizenship Amendment Act (n 39) ss 2(1), 4(3). Citizenship Act (n 24) s 2(2) amended by 2010 Citizenship Amendment Act (n 39) s 2. 261