war during the 1970s. During that time, many births in the country went unregistered. Lack of registration during the civil war was compounded by severe floods which resulted in destruction of many birth records at the local level. Meanwhile, many Mozambicans came to South Africa as refugees during the civil war and as economic migrants after the war. These factors have had the following impact in South Africa: many Mozambicans living in South Africa have never had any form of ID document – neither from Mozambique nor South Africa. These migrants have had children born in South Africa, whose births go unregistered due to their parents’ inability to produce any form of government-issued identification (combined with the fear that undocumented parents feel when approaching Home Affairs). What occurs is a snow-ball effect that results in entire families remaining undocumented and effectively stateless. In addition, when one looks at Mozambican legislation on citizenship, it is clear that citizenship is not automatic for those born abroad. Persons born to citizens outside Mozambique must actively follow an administrative procedure in order to be considered Mozambican citizens. According to Article 8 of the 1975 Citizenship Act, they shall be Mozambican nationals ‘provided’: ... they declare on their own behalf if over the age of 18 or through their legal representatives if below that age, that they wish to be Mozambican nationals and expressly renounce any other nationality to which they may be entitled. As mentioned above, where a person must follow an administrative procedure in order to access nationality, they do not have such nationality under the operation of law until they meet administrative requirements and their application is approved. Legal Guidance: 1. Any person who was born in South Africa to two Mozambican parents, who has not complied with the requirement to declare his wish to be a Mozambican national and to expressly renounce other nationalities qualifies for South African citizenship under section 2(2). If they wish to eventually apply for Mozambican citizenship, they may simply renounce South African citizenship as required by section 8 of the Mozambican Citizenship Act. 2. Any person born in South Africa to one Mozambican parent and whose other parent cannot pass on their nationality (due to nationality law, or death, absence or unwillingness of parent to acknowledge paternity/maternity), similarly qualifies under section 2(2) for citizenship if they have not complied with section 8 of the Mozambican Citizenship Act. Such an application of section 2(2) would go a long way towards preventing statelessness, particularly among second and third 92 Promoting citizenship and preventing statelessness in South Africa: A practitioner’s guide