However, this legal fact does not change the administrative requirements enforced by South African government, which does not in practice recognise citizens born abroad until they have completed the foreign birth registration process in terms of the Births and Deaths Registration Act. A person born within the South African territory today to a citizen also cannot practically access citizenship without having his or her birth registered. Birth registration is now required as a prerequisite to access an ID – it is at birth registration that an ID number is allocated to an individual and he or she is added to the National Population Register.36 Recent amendments The South African Citizenship Act 88 of 1995 was amended most recently by the South African Citizenship Amendment Act 17 of 2010 (the 2010 amendments). The 2010 amendments came into force on 1 January 2013. Under the amended Act, the importance placed on birthplace is removed; section 2(1)(b) now provides that: ... any person born in or outside the Republic, one of his or her parents, at the time of his or her birth, being a South African citizen, shall be a South African citizen by birth. Previously, people born abroad to citizens were classified as ‘citizens by descent.’37 It is as yet unclear whether this provision applies prospectively only (for people born after January 2013, when the amendments came into force) or whether it will affect the citizenship status of persons born prior to its commencement as well. The common law does not prefer retroactivity of laws generally. In this case, the amendment, if applied retroactively, would change the status of citizens born abroad to citizens ‘by birth’ instead of citizens ‘by descent.’ However, in practice, this does not appear to provide any benefit to citizens born abroad. The provisions of the Act which allow different treatment to different classes of citizens refer only to citizens ‘by naturalisation’ or ‘by 35 36 37 Legal framework on nationality and statelessness in South Africa registration was required for those born outside the country to be a citizen.35 In terms of the Citizenship Act's former section 3(1)(b), prior to the South African Citizenship Amendment Act of 2010 (2010 Citizenship Amendment Act). See regulation 6(3)(a) of Regulations in terms of section 32 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 51 of 1992, read together with section 7 of the Identification Act 68 of 1997. See section 3 of the South African Citizenship Act prior to the 2010 Citizenship Amendment Act coming into force in January 2013. This situation is in contrast to the practice at the time of the Citizenship Act's enactment in 1995. In the run up to the 1994 elections and for several years after, individuals were registered and issued IDs without having birth certificates. This policy was permitted because during apartheid, few people outside the urban areas had birth certificates or other proof of birth. Promoting citizenship and preventing statelessness in South Africa: A practitioner’s guide 23