Christine Hobden territory. These forms of acquisition are however exceptions to the norm of acquisition presented in §2(2)(b), which is acquisition by virtue of having at least one parent with South African citizenship. In all cases, registration of birth in terms of the BDRA is required. While on the surface this requirement appears to be easily met, one should note that current regulations of the BDRA require parents to register the birth within 30 days (or else pay a fee for late registration), and to be able to produce a certified copy of a South African identification document (Regulation 3(e)) or, for foreign parents, of a valid passport and visa or permit to be in the country (Regulation 3(f)). For the many living in severe poverty in South Africa, this can be a restrictive burden: those who are entitled to citizenship, but have not acquired an identification document, are likely to not register the births of their children, thus delaying and complicating their acquisition of citizenship. Parents who are illegally in the country will also fail to register their children, thus severely curtailing the applicability of the ‘statelessness exception’ (LHR 2013). 3.2.2 Naturalisation In the SACA, the basic requirements for naturalisation stayed largely unchanged from the Apartheid-era legislation with only minor word changes in §5(1) to change references to ‘the Union’ to ‘the Republic’ and to indicate more than two official languages. The requirements set out in 1995 were: (1) being of the age of majority, (2) admitted legally for permanence residence, (2) ordinarily a resident with continuous residence the year before application and for not less than four of the previous 8 years; (3) good character, (4) intends to stay in the republic; (5) can communicate in one of the official languages and (6) understands the privileges and responsibilities of South African Citizenship (§5(1)). Time in prison does not count toward the residency requirements (§5(3)(a)) and being a spouse or widower of a South African citizens decreased the residency requirement to two years (§5(5)). The main requirements of naturalisation have remained largely the same as initially set out in the SACA but subsequent amendments have resulted in a number of important changes: (i) change in the age of majority; (ii) residence requirements; (iii) the naturalisation of children; (iv) ministerial powers and (v) children of non-citizens. First, for naturalisation as an individual (and not as a child of a parent naturalising), one has to be of the age of majority (§5(a)). This clause has remained the same, but the age of majority has changed from twentyone to eighteen through the passage of the 2005 Children’s Act (No. 38 of 2005) (§17). Second, there has been a significant change in the residence requirements for naturalisation. Again this points to a tightening of citizenship laws: original post-independence legislation required that a person had been ‘ordinarily resident in the Republic and that he or she has been so resident for a continuous period of not less than one year immediately preceding the date of his or her application, and that he or she has, in addition, been resident in the Republic for a further period of not less than four years during the eight years immediately preceding the date of his or her application’ (§5(1)(c)). The current citizenship regime requires a continuous period of ‘not less than five years immediately preceding the date’ of application (§5(1)(c)). There is some lack of clarity on this restriction however: the regulations attached to this SACA, as amended in 2010, as well as the Department of Home Affairs public information, explicitly require ten years of residence (Regulation 3(2)(a)) as well as no absence longer than 90 days in any year during the five years preceding application (Regulation 3(2)(b)). It is not (legally) possible for the Department regulations to be stricter than the Act itself, and some have suggested that this needs to be challenged (Reed 2017). One interpretation that may account for this seeming 8 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2018/1- © 2018 Author(s)