9. The Act also provides for citizenship by naturalisation which is also dependent on birth
registration:
4(3). children born in South Africa to other migrants (non-citizen and non-permanent
residents); or those on a visa that does not lead to permanent residence status, are entitled
to citizenship by naturalisation at the age of 18. 68
10. There are no regulations in place to guide and monitor the implementation of sections 2(2)
and 4(3) of the Citizenship Act, both of which have been designed to safeguard against
childhood statelessness.
11. The Birth and Deaths Registration Act (BDRA) and its regulations 69 provide the legal
framework for birth registration of all persons born in South Africa. Birth registration must
ideally be initiated by both parents and occur within a prescribed time frame after birth. The
late registration of births is possible but is subject to penalties.
IV.
About the co-submitting organisations
The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town is a not-for-profit organisation specialising in working with
migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The Centre’s vision is to foster the cultural, social and
economic integration of migrants, refugees and South Africans into local society. The Centre’s
Advocacy Programme provides one-on-one assistance to migrant, refugee and asylum seeker clients,
as well as engaging in policy advocacy, high level advocacy and strategic impact litigation in order to
strengthen the human rights of persons on the move in South Africa.
Lawyers for Human Rights is an independent human rights organisation with a 35-year track record of
human rights activism and public interest litigation in South Africa. LHR uses the law as a positive
instrument for change and to deepen the democratisation of South African society and operates a
Refugee and Migrants Rights Programme which has a specialist focus on issues of citizenship,
nationality and statelessness.
The Centre for Child Law is an impact litigation organisation that was established in 1998. The Centre
is registered as a Law Clinic and is based in the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria. The Director
of the Centre is Ms Karabo Ozah. The vision of the Centre is to establish child law and uphold the rights
of children in South Africa, within and international and regional context, particularly insofar as these
interests pertain to their legal position. The Centre’s mission is to work towards the development of
child law and the realisation of children’s rights in South Africa, within a regional and international
context.
The UCT Refugee Rights Unit is a research unit situated in the Law Faculty of the University of Cape
Town. The work of the Unit comprises a legal aid clinic, a research unit, teaching, and advocacy and
training. The provision of legal aid for refugees was started as a project within the existing UCT Law
Clinic, fulfilling a social responsibility function. The Refugee Rights Project became operationally
independent from the Law Clinic in 2006 and has since evolved into a fully-fledged research Unit,
incorporating a Refugee Rights Clinic which provides direct legal services to thousands of refugees and
asylum seekers each year. The Unit conducts applied research in refugee law and related topics and
teaches refugee law to undergraduate law and masters' students within the Department of Public
68
Ibid., Section 4(3)
Birth and Deaths Registration Act 51 of 1992, and Regulations on the Registration of Births and Deaths, 2014, Available at:
https://www.gov.za/documents/births-and-deaths-registration-act
69
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