'Stateless' woman granted SA citizenship at last

After a lifetime of being “stateless”, 36-year-old Primrose Modisane has finally secured a court order, declaring her to be a South African citizen.

Pretoria high court Judge Mandla Mbongwe ruled on April 3 that the department of home affairs (DHA) must issue her with a South African birth certificate and identity document within 30 days.

After decades of bureaucracy and of what Modisane said were “hostile encounters” — with at least one official accusing her and grandmother, then 80 years old, of being “border hoppers” — the department did not oppose the granting of the application.

Mbongwe ordered the department to pay punitive costs.

Modisane was assisted by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR).

Attorney Palesa Maloisane said when the application was initially issued, the department put up a notice of intention to oppose. But it did not file any further papers and “became unresponsive”.

LHR then set the matter down on the unopposed motion roll.

While Modisane had asked the court to order that the department formally apologise to her for its “callous conduct”, Mbongwe said the court would instead express its displeasure by awarding punitive costs.

Now a mother of two, Modisane discovered her “statelessness” just before her matric exams when the department visited her school to help learners get their ID documents in order to sit for the exams.

She had no birth certificate and was denied help. She later learned that it was because her mother was unregistered and undocumented in SA.

Both Modisane and her mother were born in Zimbabwe (Modisane came to SA when she was five), but their South African lineage traced back, on the maternal side, to Modisane’s grandmother.

This would entitle both to South African citizenship.

In court papers, Modisane detailed a “distressing narrative” of attempts by her and her mother to get citizenship. They were passed from pillar to post. Even DNA tests, which proved their South African heritage connections, were ignored by the department.

Eventually, her mother was granted South African citizenship because she was able to produce her Zimbabwean birth certificate. She was issued with a South African ID in February 2023.

That same month she was diagnosed with cancer and she died in June that year.

But the department remained insistent that Modisane must produce her birth certificate from Zimbabwe.

Although she married a South African and had two children with him, her name was not reflected on the children’s birth certificates because she had no identity document.

It was only through DNA tests that the father’s paternity was established and her children were given birth certificates. 

“I have suffered severe trauma, emotional harm and blatant infringement of my basic human rights caused by the unjust and inhumane treatment inflicted on my family and me by DHA officials. I was unable to complete my education. I have never voted. My mother never had the opportunity to vote because she died within months of receiving her ID,” Modisane said in her affidavit which came before Mbongwe.

She said her mother had fought alongside her “up until her death”.

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