CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE MEMBER STATES OF THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY 2020 Loss, deprivation, renunciation, and reacquisition of nationality Three constitutions in southern Africa establish protections against deprivation of citizenship: Article 20 of the South African constitution states simply that “No citizen may be deprived of citizenship”; the constitution of Angola prohibits deprivation of nationality held from birth; while Malawi’s constitution provides that “citizenship shall not be arbitrarily denied or deprived”.163 In all three countries, however, legislation is in conflict with the constitution: in South Africa, the Citizenship Act provides for deprivation of citizenship in several circumstances; in Angola, the law provides for involuntary loss in one situation; and in Malawi the act establishes a rather extensive list of reasons for deprivation of citizenship from a naturalised citizen, arguably in violation of this protection. In several other cases, including Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, the constitution establishes an exhaustive list of reasons for withdrawal of nationality, but legislation purports to extend these reasons. Several countries do not permit loss or deprivation of nationality held from birth, at least according to constitutional provisions (Eswatini, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe), or only on acquisition or retention of another (Botswana, DRC, and Tanzania). South Africa (where the law conflicts with the constitution) and Seychelles have recently expanded the reasons for which citizenship can be deprived to include a wider range of crimes related to national security. Deprivation of nationality acquired by naturalisation is usually permissible on a much wider range of grounds. It was not possible to obtain any statistics for cases of deprivation of nationality for this report. However, the numbers of formal deprivations invoking the powers given in the law are believed to be low: it is more common to deny that a person ever legitimately held citizenship to start with. The terms used at national level vary, but this report follows the terminology used in the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. In the 1961 Convention, loss of citizenship refers to an automatic withdrawal of nationality by operation of the law (most commonly on voluntarily obtaining another nationality); while deprivation refers to withdrawal following an executive or judicial act. Renunciation is used here to refer to a person’s voluntary decision to give up nationality; and reacquisition to the restoration of citizenship after it has been lost, deprived, or renounced. Loss and deprivation of nationality attributed at birth Most of the Commonwealth states in Africa do not create the possibility for the executive to deprive a person who has been a citizen from birth: citizenship acquired at birth can only be lost by operation of law (if at all) if another nationality is retained or acquired as an adult. Thus, in Botswana and Tanzania, where dual citizenship is not permitted for adults, a person will lose citizenship acquired at birth if he or she retains or acquires another citizenship after the age of majority (see above: Dual nationality). While the possibility of depriving a person of citizenship from birth (of origin) is more common among the civil law countries, some of them also only provide for deprivation to be possible from someone who has acquired citizenship by naturalisation. 163 Constitution of South Africa, 1996, art. 20; Constitution of Angola, 2010, art. 9(4); Constitution of Malawi, 1994, art. 47(2). UNHCR / December, 2020 48