Statelessness in Southern Africa citizenship. In southern Africa, Namibia and Swaziland do not allow for loss or deprivation of birth nationality in any circumstances. Zimbabwe’s 2009 constitutional amendments state that parliament may only provide for loss of citizenship by descent (two generations born outside the country) or registration; though also that parliament can prohibit dual citizenship (which is the current situation).110 Countries where citizenship from birth can only be lost by voluntarily acquiring another citizenship include Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In principle, such a provision should not result in statelessness. The case of Zimbabwe does show, however, how citizenship laws can in certain circumstances be changed to affect a large number of people: from 2000, the government applied ever stricter rules on dual nationality which excluded from Zimbabwean nationality anyone with a purported right to claim another nationality. Many of those affected had in fact no provable claim to citizenship in any other country, rendering them stateless.111 Angola, Mozambique and South Africa all have provisions allowing citizenship from birth to be taken away by executive act. In the case of the South African provisions described above, the law requires the person to have another nationality. In the case of Mozambique and Angola a person can lose birth nationality whether or not he or she has another nationality if he or she exercises functions for another state without permission.112 Loss and deprivation of citizenship by naturalisation Almost all African countries provide for deprivation of citizenship by naturalisation under some circumstances, such as a conviction on charges of treason or a similar crime against the state, conviction on charges of ordinary, but still serious, crimes, or a finding that citizenship was acquired by fraud. In Malawi, for example, which has provisions that were typical for Commonwealth countries but have by now been reformed in many other countries, the grounds are very broad and the decision highly discretionary. Citizenship can be revoked where the minister “is satisfied” that the person “has shown himself by act or speech to be disloyal or disaffected towards the Government of Malawi”; when he has traded or associated with or assisted an enemy during war; when within five years of receiving citizenship he is sentenced to a prison term exceeding 12 months; when he resides outside Malawi for a continuous period of seven years without being in the service of Malawi or an international organization or without registering annually at a Malawian consulate his intention to retain his citizenship; or when Malawian citizenship was obtained through fraud, misrepresentation, or concealment of any material fact.113 In Commonwealth countries, laws generally provide for an individual to lose naturalised citizenship if he or she stays outside the country for seven years without notifying the authorities of an intention to retain citizenship. The only countries in Southern Africa where this is not the case are Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique and Angola. This rule, despite being a provision of international law (Article 7 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness), effectively means that a naturalised citizen without dual citizenship cannot move to another country without risking statelessness. One country, Namibia, allows naturalised citizens to lose their citizenship after a shorter period of time than the one allowed by the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (two years). Quite a large number of countries in Africa — including Lesotho in southern Africa — allow nationality by naturalisation to be revoked only during a fixed period after it has been acquired, and not indefinitely. This provides greater protection against disproportionate and arbitrary use of the law, especially in case of minor irregularities discovered long after the fact. Protection against statelessness No country in southern Africa provides an absolute prohibition on deprivation of nationality if the person would become stateless; in the case of South Africa, for example, that protection applies only to birth citizens deprived of nationality for fighting in a war against South Africa, and in the case of a naturalised 110 Constitution 1981, as amended 2009, article 9. See Bronwen Manby, Struggles for Citizenship in Africa, Zed Books, 2009, pp. 39-50. 112 In the case of Mozambique this is only in the 1975 nationality law but is not repeated in the current Constitution. 113 Malawi Citizenship Act 1966, section 25. 111 25