Report on Citizenship Law: South Africa yet been legally challenged, but concerns have been raised that it is not in line with the Constitution, that holds in §20: ‘no citizen will be deprived of citizenship’. This provision has been utilized by the Minister: media revealed in early 2017, for example, that the Department of Home Affairs had revoked the citizenship of naturalised Janusz Walrus, who is the convicted killer of Chris Hani and of Polish origin (Bateman 2017).17 Current laws have also tightened the punishment for not surrendering documents of naturalisation upon having citizenship revoked: it is now punishable by fine, imprisonment up to five years (an extension from two) or a combination of both a fine and imprisonment. As mentioned previously, the overall powers of deprivation have been significantly reduced by the repealing of §9 by the 2004 Amendment. While there is still allowance for deprivation of citizenship, this deprivation is no longer able to target those merely making use of two citizenships. 3.4 Dual Citizenship and Rights of Citizens Residing Abroad The current citizenship regime allows for dual citizenship for South African citizens. The key requirement is an application for an exemption of the loss of citizenship before acquiring a new citizenship. In this case, the Minister is authorised to order a retention (§6(2)). Citizens living abroad frequently fall foul of this regulation, seemingly through ignorance of the requirements: many do not apply for the retention of citizenship before claiming another. This error can only be rectified by those who return to live in South Africa through renaturalisation or in some cases, application for resumption of citizenship (§13(3)): both require permanent residency in South Africa and so are not open for those who wish to reacquire South African citizenship but to reside outside of the country. Dual citizenship is no longer threatened by the Minister’s ability to deprive citizens on the basis of the use of another citizenship; as mentioned above, §9 of SACA was repealed in the 2004 amendment. This 2004 amendment also included a requirement that dual citizens always enter and exit South Africa on their South African passports; violation of this requirement can result in a fine or imprisonment of up to 12 months (§26(b)). While, in general, there has been a gradual opening toward dual citizenship (through the repeal of §9), for those acquiring South African citizenship as their second citizenship, new legislation has closed off previously available options. The 2010 amendment to the SACA created a requirement that individuals wishing to naturalise have to either be from a country that allows dual citizenship or provide evidence of renunciation of their other citizenship (§5(1)(h)). It was argued that this was a correction of ‘an anomaly’ in the existing law that allowed for the acquisition of dual citizenship, whether the other country allowed it or not (Parliamentary briefing 2010). This addition was controversial because it seems that this loophole was widely used by citizens of neighbouring SADC countries. The Department of Home Affairs reported that it was an issue that SADC citizens were claiming South African citizenship which was not declared to their home state, thus allowing them to illegally acquire social grants and benefits from both states (ibid. 2010). Given the close proximity and porous borders with countries such as Lesotho and Swaziland, this deception is more plausible than it may ostensibly appear. Opposition parties objected on the grounds that it made it difficult for those from collapsed states to provide evidence of renunciation (Masondo 2010). The amendment is likely to significantly reduce the numbers of SADC citizens naturalising as the 17 Chris Hani was the leader of the South African Communist Party and Chief of Staff of the ANC’s armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe. He was assassinated in April 1993, in an act that many feared would completely derail negotiations. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2018/1 - © 2018 Author(s) 11