Operation comes a day after mayor Cyril Xaba signed an agreement with public works minister Dean Macpherson to rejuvenate the inner city
Police seized counterfeit US dollars worth more than R4m and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and arrested more than 100 undocumented foreigners, in a raid near Durban's inner city on Tuesday.
The multidisciplinary police operation also targeted hijacked buildings in the inner city.
KwaZulu-Natal premier Thami Ntuli, eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba and provincial police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi were present in John Miller Street where the detained suspects were being held.
The operation comes a day after Xaba signed an agreement with public works and infrastructure minister Dean Macpherson to rejuvenate the inner city.
Macpherson said the key is to work with all spheres of government to unlock the potential of state-owned property to ensure the city could again become a “beacon of hope” for residents.
They had agreed to establish a technical task team which would meet monthly to deal with problem buildings, ensure state-owned properties pay rates and assist in Durban's inner-city rejuvenation.
Last week Macpherson visited three problem buildings: Excelsior Court, the abandoned police barracks and the Durban magistrate's court as part of the rejuvenation.

The short answer

You might need legal assistance

The whole question

My partner was born in South Africa but moved to Portugal when he was a year old. He has a South African passport but not the national ID. I, on the other hand, am a foreigner. We currently reside in Cape Town. We are not married, and I am currently pregnant. Once our child is born, we would like to use my partner's surname and he will legally acknowledge the child. Will we be able to register our baby?

The long answer

If your partner has a valid South African passport, he should be able to apply for and get an ID card from the Department of Home Affairs.

But if he acquired the citizenship of another country, he would automatically lose his South African citizenship unless he applied for and got permission to keep his South African citizenship before acquiring the citizenship of the new country. A South African citizen can hold dual citizenship, but again only if he applied and got permission to keep his South African citizenship first.

In terms of registering the baby’s birth:

All children must be registered within 30 days of their birth under the Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1992. The parent or parents must complete Form B1-24 in black ink at their nearest Home Affairs office and submit it. The parent/s must bring their ID/s, and if they are married, a marriage certificate. If the parents are married, the child is given the father’s surname. If they are not married they can choose either the mother’s or father’s surname. The parents are then given an unabridged birth certificate which contains the child’s legal name, their date of birth and their place of birth and its parents’ names. This is then included in the National Population Register. You need an unabridged birth certificate to travel out of the country with the child.

As Home Affairs would often refuse to register the births of children when one parent was an immigrant, a case was brought to the Eastern Cape High Court in 2018 (Naki versus Director General Home Affairs). The court had to decide whether the Births and Deaths Registration Act (BDRA) allowed the father to register a child in the case of a mother being absent or not having legal permission to be in the country. It decided that the BDRA did not allow a father to register the birth of a child in those circumstances; it was therefore unconstitutional as all children born in South Africa have a right to have their births registered.

The court also found that Regulation 12 (1) of the Births and Deaths Registration Act (BDRA) which provided for an unmarried mother to register a child’s birth prevented an unmarried father from registering the birth of a child, which was also unconstitutional.

So it “read into” the regulations the words “or father” to ensure that either a mother or father could register the birth of their child if they were unmarried.

This court decision means that it’s easier now to register the birth of children where one parent is South African and the other parent is an immigrant, because Home Affairs may not refuse to register a child’s birth on the grounds of the legal status of its parents.   

Although the court order was in 2018, Home Affairs often takes a very long time to comply with court orders and you may find some Home Affairs officials still refusing to register births of children in the circumstances described above. If you run into that kind of trouble you may want to consult the following organisations for advice

The short answer

Yes, you can, if you have the right paperwork, and attend a Home Affairs marriage interview.

The long answer

Thank you for your email asking whether you and your partner can get married if he is on an asylum permit.

Asylum seekers and refugees do have the right to get married in South Africa as long as they meet the Home Affairs marriage requirements. These are:

• that if you have been married previously, you must show proof of divorce or death of previous partner
• that you are not a minor (under age of 18)
• that you are not suffering from severe mental illness which prevents you from understanding what marriage is.

Your partner must also give Home Affairs a valid asylum seeker/refugee permit, as well as a declaration from the police confirming that he is not currently married.

The first step to getting married is to register your intention to marry with Home Affairs and apply for a Department of Home Affairs Marriage Certificate at least three months before your wedding date.

The following documents must be submitted with the Home Affairs marriage forms which are available on request:

• Identification documents, such as a South African ID card
• Both passports, if one partner is not South African
• A completed form, which declares that you are legally allowed to marry
• Official divorce decree, stamped by the court, if one partner has previously been married
• Death certificate, if one partner has been widowed

Before a marriage is declared legal in South Africa, couples are required to attend a Home Affairs marriage interview. This is to make sure that both parties are entering the marriage of their own free will. If you don’t attend an interview, the marriage certificate will not be registered and the marriage will be declared null and void.

The short answer

The answers to your questions are far from clear and we recommend contacting an organisation like Lawyers for Human Rights

The whole question

I  am served with papers under section 29 and required to submit written representation within 30 days. Where do I submit the appeal? And to which email address? Will I be required to leave the country or can I wait until I get a decision on the written representation?

My children are three years old and SA citizens.

The long answer

Thank you for your email asking where your appeal against Section 29 must be submitted, and whether you can stay in the country until your appeal is decided.

The most common reasons for which a person can be banned from entering South Africa under Section 29 are that they had been previously deported, or had been found with a fraudulent visa, permit, passport or identity document. You need to submit a written application to the Director-General of Home Affairs (DG) asking that your prohibited status be waived (overturned) and giving reasons for this.

The DG will take into consideration the reasons for the Section 29 papers being issued, the seriousness of the offence, and your personal circumstances – such as having two three year-old children who are South African citizens.

From the Home Affairs website, it was not clear which of the following email addresses was the correct one for appeals, so it’s safer to copy both of them:

The answer to the question of whether you can stay in the country pending the outcome of your appeal is far from clear:

On the one hand, it would seem that under the Refugees Act, you cannot be arrested and deported until you have exhausted the appeal process; but on the other hand, if your visa expires before you get the answer, you may very well be in danger of being arrested. Also, given that Home Affairs is very slow and dysfunctional, you may have to wait a long time

 

The short answer

Children born after October 2014 will need a visa from Home Affairs.

The whole question

I am a foreign national and I’ve had permanent residency since 2011. I’ve been married for ten years and three of my children were born in South Africa, making them South African citizens. However, my last born was denied citizenship by Home Affairs. They stated that he should apply for a visa instead.  Shouldn’t he be a citizen like his siblings?

The long answer

The South African Citizenship Amendment Act, 2010 (Act No. 17 of 2010) came into operation on 1 January 2013 and unfortunately it means that children of permanent residents born after October 2014 no longer qualify for automatic citizenship or permanent residency. It means that children born after October 2014 will need a visa from Home Affairs.

The visa your youngest son must apply for is temporary residency, for example under the relatives category, and he will also need to apply for permanent residency.

The law now says:

“Any person born in the Republic of parents who have been admitted into the Republic for permanent residence and who is not a South African citizen, qualifies to be a South African citizen by birth, if:

(a) he or she has lived in the Republic from the date of his or her birth to the date of becoming a major; and
(b) his or her birth is registered in the Republic in accordance with the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1992 (Act No. 51 of 1992).

So I’m afraid your son can only become a South African citizen after he is 18 years old, provided that his birth is registered.