No ANC stamp of approval for Bapela’s citizenship idea

DEPUTY Minister in the Presidency Obed Bapela has been left out in the cold as both the government and the ANC denied his claim that the party was planning to scrap dual citizenship.

On Friday, ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa was emphatic in his denial that dual citizenship would be discussed at the party’s national general council next month.

This was in contrast to Bapela’s statements to the Sunday Times last weekend — and later to at least one radio station — that the party was concerned about dual citizenship because it allowed young South Africans to serve in the Israeli army.

Bapela heads the international relations subcommittee of the ANC’s national executive committee.

He told the Sunday Times that dual citizenship had come up for debate at the ruling party’s lekgotla in July and that the meeting decided to take the matter to the upcoming NGC, where the policy would be reviewed.

Bapela’s remarks caused a major storm, with critics of the plan suggesting it might be unconstitutional.

Even Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba entered the fray, telling journalists that a “blanket ban” on dual citizenship would be “wrong”.

This would not be the first time members of President Jacob Zuma’s executive have sent out conflicting signals on a policy issue.

In many such cases, Luthuli House often opts to stay silent.

But this time it entered the battle on Gigaba’s side, with Kodwa saying the NGC can’t change existing government policies.

“The conference will only review the resolutions of the last conference because it is a midterm review and there was no such discussion at the last conference. We can’t review things that happen in-between.”

Bapela told Sunday Times last week: “The question is to see if the world still needs this model of ’WRONG’: Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba says citizenship laws are not under review EXILE: Former speaker Frene Ginwala wonders why people want dual citizenship dual citizenship . . . We say in this new world order, people should just say I am a citizen of South Africa and I pledge my allegiance to this country. But I do have a home [outside the country].”

Gigaba appealed for calm, saying: “From the point of view of government there is absolutely no review of the Citizenship Act and no plans to review it.”

The regulations allow for dual citizenship provided both South Africa and the second country allow such citizenship. South Africans do, however, have to apply to home affairs to retain their citizenship when a second citizenship is taken.

The department said that between 2011 and this year, 16 353 people had applied for retention of citizenship.

Any move to do away with dual citizenship would be a drastic shift in policy for the ruling party, as many in its leadership hold, or previously held, dual citizenship as a result of years spent in exile.

Former struggle stalwarts and leading political figures joined the debate this week.

Former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils said he believed that “those who got dual citizenship in exile gave it up once they entered government”.

Frene Ginwala, former speaker of the National Assembly, said that in the ’50s and ’60s, people of Indian origin had no South African passports and were offered “certificates of identity” instead. She said she had a South African passport briefly before leaving for Britain between 1963 and 1964. “When I went to Britain I got a British passport. I didn’t have a South African passport to travel, so I was given a British one,” said Ginwala.

She said dual citizenship was never really an issue for many ANC exiles who only returned to South Africa after 1990.

“In 1994, I gave up my British passport. I got a South African one on my arrival.”

Ginwala said she did not hold “strong views” on the debate. “For me the point is why do you want dual citizenship? That is the question.”

Former presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki held Tanzanian passports, which allowed them to travel while in exile.

For Western Cape premier and former DA leader Helen Zille, dual citizenship has always been an option.

“Because my parents were refugees from Germany, I was awarded Einbürgerungsurkunde [certificate of naturalisation], which granted me the right to German citizenship.

“However, I do not have a valid German passport and have never travelled on one.”