In brief
Many individuals in South Africa, including Arnold Ncube and Christy Chitengu, navigate life without a birth certificate, rendering them stateless. This status not only affects their ability to find jobs but also denies them access to education and healthcare. Experts estimate that thousands face such challenges, often due to bureaucratic obstacles and abandoned familial ties. As they strive to reclaim their identities and rights, the systemic issues of statelessness raise questions about citizenship and humanity.
Many people may take their birth certificate, or similar official papers, for granted - hidden in a drawer and rarely seeing the light of day - but for those without one, it can lead to a shadow life or an uncertain existence.This is thought to affect millions of people around the world, described as stateless, and 25-year-old South African Arnold Ncube is one of those.Because he has no state-issued documents, washing cars in the backstreets of Thembisa township near Johannesburg is one of the few ways he can make a living.He was born in Johannesburg and his father is South African, qualifying him for citizenship here. But when he tried to register for secondary school, he realised he didn't have a birth certificate.Having been abandoned by his parents - his dad left before he was born and his mum when he was 14 - he could not prove his status.It's a painful thing, he says. You're basically invisible. You don't exist. It's like you're living in the shadows. You don't have a bank account, you can't apply for a decent job that you can earn a living with.He adds that he tries to stay positive but it's been challenging.When I see my peers, they are done with school now. Whereas I couldn't study further. It's a lot. Depression was once my friend.Arnold is one of at least an estimated 10,000 stateless people living in South Africa who, despite being born here, are struggling to prove their nationality and access public services.There are no official statistics available on stateless people here because they tend to slip through the cracks. So the figures are based on estimations by organisations like the UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR and civil rights organisations.With no citizenship, stateless people cannot get documents and struggle to get access to basic necessities including education and healthcare.Statelessness is caused by many factors, including administrative barriers and poor record-keeping. As a result, the real number of stateless people is hard to gauge in many parts of the world.Human rights lawyer and advocate Christy Chitengu, who was stateless until three years ago, tells a similar story. She found out she was stateless at 17, resulting from her parents being foreign nationals. Despite being born in Johannesburg and issued a handwritten birth certificate, she faced bureaucratic hurdles that denied her citizenship.Experts believe policy changes are necessary to address the issue globally. In Arnold's case, he is now working with a lawyer to reclaim his recognition, aiming to return to school to study computer science.For us, statelessness is not just a legal issue, it's a matter that involves the right to development, says a UNHCR representative. As Arnold plays football with local children, he holds hope for a future where he can contribute fully to society.
