There is a belief that foreign nationals who give birth on South African soil automatically receive citizenship for their offspring, this is not true.
In a situation whereby both the parents are not citizens of South Africa, the child is issued with a “unabridged birth certificate”. This document is not acknowledged as an identity document and cannot be used to register kids for school or to receive social grants. This documentation can be used however, to obtain a passport on behalf of the child at the relevant embassy within South Africa, to register the child for a passport, in order for the parents to acquire the correct visa to match their own child.
If one of the parent’s is a South African citizen/resident, the parent will be able to apply for citizenship on that footing, they will then need to firstly submit an application for an unabridged birth certificate. The unabridged birth certificate lists both of the parents name’s on it. The foreign national of the child is not stated on the unabridged birth certificate and as one can imagine this has caused much chaos.
These adverse circumstances also affect the millions of adopted kids too. There are abandoned kids who have possible parents, willing and able to take them into their homes and take those in as part of their families yet legally the kids are required to have a name, identity number or country of origin. These children who are abandoned by their foreign parents are literally left and neglected.
The Department of Social Development ensures us that they will take care of the kids that are in need of supervision and protection. They state that all Kids must have birth certificates!
On the positive side the SA Human Rights Commission are going to asses why kids born in South Africa to foreign parents are not being given birth certificates as well as why they are not automatically granted citizenship.
As said by the deputy chairperson of SAHR she was not aware that unabridged birth certificates were not being granted to kids of foreign parents and that they will be looking into this matter very thoroughly.