Mulowayi v Minister of Home Affairs and Welfare of the Child (‘ACERWC’) has made it clear that state parties should not make children wait until the age of majority to obtain citizenship. 41 The restrictions in s 2(3) of the SACA, as amended, are — in theory — cured by the provisions in s 2(2). 42 Section 2(3) allows minors who are citizens of another country to apply for South African citizenship at the age of majority. 43 For those who have no nationality at all, s 2(2) grants them South African citizenship from birth so that they are not left stateless. 44 Sections 2(3) and (2) complement each other and ensure compliance both with the Constitution and with its international legal obligations. 45 The Constitutional Court's decision touches on the issue of the third applicant’s statelessness and the impact it will have on his life, including the difficulty he would face in obtaining medical care and access to education. 46 It is strange, however, that the Court does not comment on Gaddiel’s eligibility to citizenship by birth under s 2(2) of the SACA. 47 Perhaps one reason for this is that there are no regulations setting out how a stateless person might make an application under s 2(2). Usually, the routes to citizenship available under the SACA are made accessible by the provision of an application form set out in regulations. In Minister of Home Affairs v DGLR, the need for such regulations was spelled out and the Supreme Court of Appeal ordered the Home Affairs Department to make such regulations. 48 Although four years have passed since the judgment in DGLR, to date the Home Affairs Department has not complied with the Court order. CONCLUSION The Court does not go into detail on the lawfulness of s 2(3) of the SACA, but clearly the section’s validity is on its radar, especially in light of s 28(1) of the Constitution, the provisions of the CRC, the African Charter and ACERWC’s 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (‘ACERWC’) is the body empowered to receive and examine reports by parties to the African Charter on the measures they have adopted to implement provisions of the African Charter and the progress achieved protecting rights under the African Charter. See African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, General Comment No 2 on Article 6 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child: ‘The Right to a Name, Registration at Birth, and to Acquire a Nationality’, Doc No ACERWC/GC/02 (2014), 16 April 2014 [92] (‘General Comment’). See also African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) and Open Society Justice Initiative on Behalf of Children of Nubian Descent Kenya v The Government of Kenya, Decision No. 002/Com/002/2009, 22 March 2011 [42] (‘ACERWC’s Decision’). The ACERWC’s Decision states that ‘the practice of making children wait until they turn 18 years of age to apply to acquire a nationality cannot be seen as an effort on the part of the State Party to comply with its children’s rights obligations’. This practice is ‘neither in line with the spirit and purpose of Article 6, nor promotes children’s best interests, and therefore constitutes a violation of the [African Charter]’. The Committee does not limit itself to making this comment specifically about stateless children (who may have another remedy under national laws) but makes the wider point that such provisions create a risk of statelessness. SACA (n 1). ibid. ibid. ibid; Constitution (n 15). Mulowayi (n 1) 6 [12]. ibid 11 [32]; SACA (n 1). Minister of Home Affairs v DGLR [2016] 1051/2015 (Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa) (Registrar Myburgh) (‘DGLR’). 183