“It is hurting and you don’t even like it when people are talking about IDs. You feel shame. Even when something goes wrong, they say, ‘she doesn’t even have an ID, what can she do?’ My situation impacted my family … even the time I wanted to sell vegetables...goods are cheaper wholesale, but you need an ID. It was hard because we are all dependent on what I am selling and we are living from hand to mouth.” Case study Case study Mary Chombo Mwale was born in South Africa in 1962. Mary’s mother was South African. Her father was from Malawi and became a South African citizen through marriage. At age 16, her family moved to Malawi. Mary later married a Malawian and started a family. When her husband passed away, Mary decided to move back to South Africa with her four children. She had never had a birth certificate, so she applied for late registration of birth. She was told by Home Affairs officials to ‘go back to Malawi’. She went to four different offices, often bringing as a witness her elderly neighbour who knew her when she grew up as a child in Soweto. But she was repeatedly turned away and told ‘we do not assist foreigners’. Eventually, Home Affairs told Mary that she must renounce Malawian citizenship in order to be recognised as South African – an unlawful request. She duly renounced her citizenship at the Malawian Embassy. Finding herself stateless, Mary approached LHR. LHR corresponded with the Department of Home Affairs and Mary’s application for late registration of birth and a South African ID were processed and approved. “Now I’m feeling free. I even showed my friends that now ‘I’m just like you’. I’m the happiest. I even thank God for hearing my prayers. I can tell other people they must be open. They have problems that they don’t want to speak out about. They just become discouraged. But persistence has helped me a lot. It works.” Promoting citizenship and preventing statelessness in South Africa: A practitioner’s guide 75