Children born abroad with one South African parent have right to citizenship - ConCourt 

30 January 2023 – GroundUp 

• The Constitutional Court finalised a seven-year legal battle fought by Lawyers for Human Rights on behalf of four people born to SA parents outside the country.

• The case centred on the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2010 and how it applied to people born outside of South Africa before January 2013.

• Justice Sisi Khampepe slammed the Department of Home Affairs, describing its conduct in the matter as "brazenly incompetent".

Children born in other countries are entitled to South African citizenship as long as one parent is South African, the Constitutional Court has ruled.

A seven-year legal battle is finally over and the court has ruled that the Department of Home Affairs must immediately recognise as citizens Yamika Chisuse, born in 1989 in Malawi; Martin Ambrose, born in 1970 in Zimbabwe; Amanda Tilma, born in 1969 in Zimbabwe; and Emma Dullart, born in 2006 in Accra.

The ruling by the court has cleared up any confusion about the country's citizenship by descent laws, which were interpreted by Home Affairs to mean that nobody born in other countries after 2013 qualified for citizenship, irrespective of whether their parents were South Africans, GroundUp reported.

Represented by Lawyers for Human Rights, the applicants started negotiations with the department in 2013 and first went to court in 2016.

The department failed to file opposing papers and it was finally set down to be heard in May 2019.

The department asked for a further postponement, but this was refused and the matter was heard unopposed.

The applicants claimed that the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2010 (which came into effect in 2013) was not being applied retrospectively, resulting in "wholesale deprivation of citizenship rights overnight".

They said the provisions of the Act did not provide for anyone born outside of South Africa to a South African parent before January 2013 to obtain citizenship.

'Risks of statelessness'

The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ruled in their favour, declaring sections of the act unconstitutional.

But the Constitutional Court has now declined to ratify this, saying that the act was misinterpreted.

In a unanimous ruling handed down this week, Judge Sisi Khampepe said the issue surrounded the wording in the act which stated "any person who is born".

This was interpreted to mean only those born after 2013.

The judge said the only reasonable and constitutional compliant construction of the text was that it included all persons, born yesterday, today and tomorrow.

"An interpretation that favours a prospective-only operation in this instance effectively abolishes existing rights.

"Moreover, a finding that the section only applies prospectively would have the effect of excluding not only the vast majority of those who had acquired citizenship by descent, but also those who, like the applicants in this matter, are excluded from the ambit of the section merely by the date of their birth," said Khampepe.

Khampepe said: 

This interpretation would also expose some individuals to the risks of statelessness and it would be contrary to the spirit and purpose of the legislation, which seeks to widen the pathways to South African citizenship rather than narrow them.

'Brazenly incompetent'

The judge labelled the department's conduct "brazenly incompetent". While it had belatedly, before the Constitutional Court, conceded to an interpretation of the act that would recognise the applicants as citizens, it had continued to oppose the application on a "factual basis".

"The ordinary rule is that costs follow the results and the applicants have been unsuccessful in confirming the order of invalidity.

"But clearly this case encompassed more than that – it was about vindicating the citizenship rights of the applicants who have been dragged from the proverbial pillar to post by the government's intransigence, indifference and inefficiency.

"The applicants have been successful in vindicating these rights and are entitled to their costs for the significant and prolonged litigation.

"The documents must be issued as soon as possible. They have already suffered greatly by the dilatory conduct of the government and there is no reason why they should continue to be at their mercy."

Liesl Muller of Lawyers for Human Rights said the case was about one simple thing – dignity.

"The application was opposed to the bitter end, this despite two of the applicants providing DNA evidence of their link to a South African parent and two others having government-issued proof of their links.

"Our clients expressed overwhelming relief … It may have been a seven-year legal battle; for them it has been a life-long struggle."

www.samigration.com

Section 10 of Births and Deaths Registration Act 'impairs dignity of unmarried fathers' - ConCourt 

Groundup | 30 January 2023

Section 10 of Births and Deaths Registration Act has been declared unconstitutional. 

Getty Images

• The Constitutional Court has declared a section of the Births and Deaths Registration Act unconstitutional.

• The section does not allow an unmarried father to register his child's birth under his surname, unless the mother gives consent or is present.

• A ConCourt judge says there is no justification for differentiating between married and unmarried fathers.

The Constitutional Court has declared section 10 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act - which does not allow an unmarried father to register his child's birth under his surname, unless the mother is present or gives consent - unconstitutional. 

In a judgment by Justice Margaret Victor on Wednesday, which was read out by Justice Steven Majiedt, the court found there was no justification for differentiating between married and unmarried fathers.

"Section 10 of the act impairs the dignity of unmarried fathers, whose bonds with their children are deemed less worthy than the children of married parents," Majiedt said. 

The apex court confirmed a 2020 ruling by the Eastern Cape High Court, which found the act invalid and inconsistent. 

Father Menzile Lawrence Naki approached the court after the Department of Home Affairs refused to register his child under his surname because the mother was an undocumented Democratic Republic of Congo national.

Consent

The department would also not allow him to register the birth, without the mother's consent.

Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng was one of two dissenting justices. He acknowledged that the act discriminated against unmarried fathers, but held the discrimination was reasonable, justifiable and fair. 

"The chief justice holds that children are vulnerable and their best interests are of paramount importance in issues that concern them have to be addressed. 

"The chief justice further reasons that they must be protected and not exposed to the risks of being easily claimed and adopted by people, whose relationship with them or subsequently to be in their lives, has been established," said Majiedt.

www.samigration.com

Is artificial intelligence beginning of the end? 

City Press – 30 Jan 2023

Is this the beginning of the end for personalized creativity? 

If you spend enough time online, you would have seen the AI-generated pictures of black alternative people at a rave or maybe you’ve even created some fun AI art of your own in the recent past.

AI, also called machine intelligence, is defined as a sector within computer science that primarily focuses on elevating, building and managing computerized technology. 

AI technology is also created with the intention of autonomously making decisions and carrying out actions on behalf of a human.

Surprisingly, AI technology is an umbrella term that involves many other computerized tools such as digitize learning, robotics and computerized vision, as well as language comprehension and generation.

With all the strides that have been made in the digital sphere, we are now seeing the rise of AI technology as it infiltrates more conventional hardware systems, including on our cellular devices and desktops.

AI technology allows for data-driven decisions to be made at a faster and more accurate rate than the human brain can compute.

For some industries, the AI takeover happened faster than was expected. 

In the US, fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s and KFC said goodbye to many of their servers at counters and welcomed automated machines that make the ordering and paying process faster for patrons.

Call Centres also had their day when service calls became automated, costing employees their jobs.

While fast food servers and call centre agents worried about the future of their jobs, many of us felt a false sense of security in our lines of work. 

But now machine intelligence is coming for yet another industry – the arts and culture sector, which is seeing a lot more AI influence infiltrating the sanctity of creativity and creative expression.

If you scroll through TikTok, Instagram or even Twitter for long enough, you’ll find AI-generated songs, paintings, film scripts and even novels, many of which seem just as good those written by a human.

I was recently scrolling through my own TikTok account when I found a video of someone who had exposed their AI to 1 000 hours of British singer Adele’s music and then requested that the AI write and perform its own Adele-inspired song.

I was stunned to hear that the AI not only wrote a deeply emotional song in the style of Adele, but it sounded exactly like the Easy on Me hitmaker.

AI technology has been going through a period of mass expansion and development over the past 10 years, and its advancements are moving at a rapid pace.

In the 2004 film I, Robot – starring US actor Will Smith – AI robots are used to help human beings with day-to-day tasks and for companionship, but later become sentient and one plots their plan for world domination.

A similar phenomenon has allegedly already taken place in the real world.

In June last year, a Google engineer went on record to state that one of their Google chatbot generators had become sentient.

Blake Lemoine said he had spent hours testing the machine known as Lamda – short for Language Model for Dialogue Applications – and was convinced that the chatbot had gained a consciousness and was consumed by its own dreams, needs, rights and fears.

While some brushed this off as Lemoine’s consumption by AI and its possible trickery, many others began to question whether or not this was the beginning of the next step of human/machine evolution.

Considering the fact that this is only the beginning of AI technology, we are yet to see the ways it will affect or improve the lives of human beings. 

However, when it comes to artistic expression, the possibilities are only terrifying.

Since the beginning of time, art and creativity have been practices of a sacred nature; true expressions of emotion and state of mind; words and art that perfectly portray how we feel.

The most significant trait of art and artistic practice is the personal nature by which it is created – completely within the beauty of the complex human experience.

The threat of AI technology in the creative world may mean the end of record deals, as many record companies can afford to create new AI music from some of history’s greatest musicians, including Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Billie Holiday. 

Many of these companies can even afford to create impressive songs and symphonies from some of our biggest talents. 

Today, we have more one-hit wonders than ever, with creators dropping their songs on apps such as TikTok, never to be heard of again. 

Therefore, we begin to understand the threat that technological advancement and AI have on creativity and the creative industry.

The threat could also mean that painting, sculpture, architecture and other forms of expression could become more impersonal.

Is this the beginning of AI as the next step in creative productivity? Is this the beginning of the end for the common creative?

www.samigration.com

SAPS captain arrested after she allegedly detained foreign nationals, demanded R10 000 for their freedom.

IOL – 27 January 2023

Pretoria – Three suspects, including a female police captain have been arrested on charges of corruption, defeating the ends of justice, extortion and kidnapping.

Police in Mpumalanga have identified the trio as Tshidi Anastacia Mamareko, 56, Santi Madoda Khumalo, 44, and Albert Ramuchu, 41.

The suspects, one woman and two men, were nabbed in Witbank on Monday afternoon, after they had received money in a bid to release undocumented foreign nationals they had arrested, according to Mpumalanga police spokesperson Colonel Donald Mdhluli.

“According to the report, 13 alleged undocumented persons were reportedly taken into a police marked van by the three suspects for hours whereby a bribe of R10 000 was demanded from them for their freedom,” he said.

It is alleged that the detained individuals were working at a construction site in Witbank.

“Apparently, the owner of the premises was also contacted to pay for the release of the 13. After a few hours, cash was allegedly paid to the three suspects and that is when they were arrested by members of the police from the Mpumalanga provincial anti-corruption unit,” Mdhluli said.

The cash was also confiscated from the possession of the trio, as part of the investigation.

On Tuesday, the three appeared before the Emalahleni Magistrate’s Court, and they were each granted bail of R2 000.

They are set to return to the same court on March 1, while police investigation continues.

Internal investigations surrounding the incident against the SAPS captain will also be conducted, and Mdhluli said disciplinary steps may be taken pending the outcome of the probe.

Provincial commissioner of police in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant-General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela has welcomed the arrest of the three.

She “strongly” warned police officers to avoid involving themselves in corrupt activities “as it would land them in hot water”.

“We cannot allow ourselves to be associated with corruption, and the law will have to take its course against such who break the law, including those within our ranks without fear of favour,” she said.

www.samigration.com

Prohibition Appeals 

SA Migration | 25  Jan 2023

When applying for upliftment after being found in possession of the following:

1. Fraudulent Visas

2. Fraudulent Permanent Residence permit.

3. Foreign nationals who were deported. 

We require the following documents.

1. Copies of passports.

2. Copies of previous permit's or visas.

3. A copy of the suspected fraudulent visa.

NB: The applicant must submit a signed representation with full details as to what led  him or her to obtain fraudulent visa or Permanent residence permit.

a. The deported foreign nationals who had been out of the country for the prescribed period must submit South African Police Clearance Certificate when they apply for rehabilitation.

b. In case whereby a foreign nationals  was found in possession of a fraudulent South African Police Clearance Certificate, Medical Certificates, School acceptance letter, Bank Statements must be forwarded to overstayappeals@dha.gov.za.

Good Cause Appeals (email address: GoodCauseAppeals@dha.gov.za.)

We require the following documents:

1. A signed written representation with full details as to what led  him or her failed to renew his/her temporary residence visa within 60 days prior to its expiry, and what are the reasons beyond his or her control that prevented him or her to apply for such renewal.

2. Copy of the Good Cause rejection letter (Form 2)

3. Copies of the passports.

4. Copies of previous permits or visas.

5. Any other supporting documents in support of the request for an appeal process, such as a Letter from the respective Embassy when you claim delay of the passport issuance.

NB: Kindly note that we are strictly dealing with appeals application only. If you want to apply for a Good Cause you must approached nearest Home Affairs Inspectorate offices.

Appeals must be sent to prohibitionappeals@dha.gov.za

Enquiries:

Mr. Mabasa - 071 252 0391

Mr. Mahlangu - 063 684 6615

Mr. Masilela - 063 684 6692

Mr. Moilwa - 066 290 3267

Mr. Ndlovu - 083 700 9351

For more information, Please contact us on:

Tel No landline CT  :  +27 (0) 21 879 5560

Tel No landline JHB : +27 (0) 12 880 1490

Whatsapp  Tel No : +27 (0) 82 373 8415 - (Whatsapp messages only, No calls)

Tel No office : +27 (0) 82 373 8415 (Whatsapp messages only, No calls)  

Tel No admin : +27 (0) 64 126 3073 – (Whatsapp calls only – No Messages) 

Tel No sales : +27 (0) 74 0366127 - (Whatsapp calls only – No Messages)

Please email us to info@samigration.com

www.samigration.com