Citizenship - Reinstatement

Loss and Reinstatement of Citizenship: Legal and Administrative Reality

There is widespread confusion in the context of the Constitutional Court ruling of 6 May 2025 striking down Section 6(1)(a) of the South African Citizenship Act. The Act previously provided for the "automatic" loss of South African citizenship upon voluntary acquisition of another citizenship without ministerial permission whereby a citizen was expected to obtain a retention of SA citizenship letter prior to acquiring foreign citizenship . This provision has now been declared unconstitutional and invalid.

Please note that this ruling impacts anyone who acquired foreign citizenship without obtaining a retention letter on or after 6 October 1995 only. This does not cover anyone who lost citizenship prior to that date as they fall under the previous Citizenship Act and are unable to apply for reinstatement online.

While the law framed this as “automatic loss”, the practical reality has always been different. The onus has always remained on the individual to ensure that their citizenship status is correctly recorded with the Department of Home Affairs. Critically, what was legally described as “automatic” did not translate into automatic administrative processes. Many wrongly made the assumption that somehow the foreign country’s home office would notify SA Home Affairs who would then update the person’s citizenship status however that was not the case. Individuals were still required to notify Home Affairs so that their status could be updated on the National Population Register (NPR). Due to extremely poor communication by the department over many years, many citizens were unaware of this requirement.

As a result, several categories now exist:

Those whose citizenship status was changed on the NPR
These individuals are eligible to use the reinstatement portal, which is designed for people whose citizenship was administratively removed and who now wish to regain South African citizenship following the court ruling.
Those who cannot or do not wish to be reinstated
Despite the court’s blanket ruling, there are individuals who either cannot be reinstated as they now have citizenship of a country that does not allow dual citizenship or they simply do not wish to be reinstated. The department is aware of this reality, which is why there has been no automatic mass reinstatement. It is anticipated that an opt-out mechanism will be introduced in due course for those who do not wish to regain citizenship so they can notify the department they choose to remain as non-citizens.
Those who never notified Home Affairs
For individuals who never informed the department and therefore never had their citizenship status changed on the NPR, Home Affairs has always continued to regard them as South African citizens. Legally and administratively, they have never been recorded as having lost citizenship and therefore cannot be “reinstated.” For these individuals, the correct legal route to change status remains formal renunciation of South African citizenship, as they are still recorded as citizens in the state system. It appears that renunciation applications are taking in excess of 8-12 months to be processed and until the applicant has officially had their citizenship revoked, they remain a citizen and should comply with the laws and travel regulations for citizens.

Uncertainty of citizenship status

For those unsure of their status, the first step of the reinstatement portal is designed for individuals to check their ID against the National Population Register.

Old ‘book of life’ and previous format of ID’s

If you emigrated in the late 1980s to mid 1990s and never acquired the more modern green barcoded ID book you may only have the old ‘book of life’ (blue book) or the orioginal 16 page green ID book (1980s) with the now outdated ID format which was changed during the transition into democracy. The old format of ID is not recognised by the reinstatement portal and this is a matter the department needs to address.

We have engage the Home Affairs Head of Citizenship who responded a follows:

'Back office will have to determine the status of these clients before we can outline what is required. I suggest those reference book numbers be forwarded to me so that my team can check, if their reference numbers were converted to the current id numbers, and it is only thereafter we will be able to advise on the next step and we can consider how we can improve the portal to accommodate these categories of clients. In the interim you may direct these queries to me'

Here’s how to convert the last three digits of the old 13-digit to new 13-digit SA ID numbers:

000 = 083
001 = 084
002 = 085
003 = 086
004 = 087
005 = 088
006 = 089
007 = 080
008 = 081
009 = 082

Try the reinstatement portal again using the relevant above ending. The first step of the portal will check your details against the National Population Register - it will either say citizen, non-citizen or uncertain. If born in SA and you lost SA citizenship under the 1995 Citizenship Act, you automatically retain the right to permanent residency and if that is the case can apply for an ID book on that basis - instead of the third to last digit being a 0 which means citizen, they would have amended your ID number whereby the third to last digit is a 1 which means permanent residency e.g. if your old ID ended in 003 - if you're a citizen it should be 086 but if they somehow found out you'd lost citizenship (usually only if you've told them) then it would be 186.

If you are impacted by not having the correct ID format and the above doesn't work for you, please email us info@operationwatershed.com so we can liaise with the department to help you acquire the correct ID format and where applicable, ensure you are able to apply for reinstatement.