Can you lose South African citizenship? South African citizenship can be taken away if the person also has citizenship of another country. If the person acquires citizenship of another country, he or she will lose their South African citizenship unless they apply to retain it before acquiring foreign citizenship and paying the required fee. A person can lose South African citizenship by: Getting the citizenship of another country unless the reason for that is a marriage to a citizen of the other country Renouncing the South African citizenship voluntarily Serving in the armed forces of another country while that country is at war with South Africa Using the passport of another country without the minister’s permission Voting in another country’s elections OR If the certificate of naturalisation was obtained by means of fraud or false representation If the certificate was issued in conflict with the provisions of the act In the case of south african dual citizenship, the citizen has been sentenced to imprisonment for 12 months or more If the minister is satisfied that it is in the public’s interest that such a citizen shall cease to be a South African citizen Note: Anyone who complains that their South African citizenship has been taken away MUST be referred to an attorney. The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has ruled unconstitutional a provision of law that caused South African citizens to automatically lose their South African citizenship if they failed to apply to retain their citizenship before becoming citizens of another country. South African citizens who lost their citizenship during the validity of this rule must apply for South African passports for purposes of entry or departure from the country. The Department of Home Affairs has not confirmed whether it will appeal the decision to the constitutional court. If it appeals and wins, the provision may again be held valid and South African citizens seeking another country’s citizenship will need to continue to apply to retain their South African citizenship. If the Department does not appeal the decision, South African citizens will be able to retain their South African citizenship even if they are citizens of other countries, without applying to retain their South African citizenship. Fragomen will monitor this development and provide updates. The Supreme Court of Appeal held in June 2023 that section 6(1)(a) of the South African Citizenship Act, 1995 by which South African citizenship is lost when acquiring citizenship of another country is constitutionally irrational and invalid . The section was declared invalid and citizens who lost their citizenship by operation of section 6(1)(a) are deemed not to have lost their citizenship. Section 3(3) of the Constitution, which came into effect on 6 October 1995, provides that citizenship can be acquired by birth, descent, naturalisation or by grant by the Minister of a certificate of naturalisation to any foreigner who meets certain specified requirements. The court was unable to find any legitimate government purpose which section 6(1)(a) seeks to achieve by the cessation of citizenship when a South African citizen formally acquires the citizenship of another country. The fact that citizens can under section 6(2) retain their South African citizenship on application to the Minister underscores the arbitrariness and irrationality of the provision. The section treated citizens who already had dual citizenship differently from those who intended to acquire citizenship or nationally of another country. There is no rationale for why an individual adult citizen who applies for the citizenship of another country must by operation of law lose their South African citizenship. Section 20 of the Constitution stipulates that “no citizen may be deprived of citizenship”. The purpose of section 20, among other things, is to prevent the denial of citizenship that may arise in any manner other than renunciation under section 7 of the Act. Citizenship is a gateway to political rights, to freedom of movement and residence and to freedom of trade, occupation and profession. Deprivation of citizenship therefore creates the risk of being denied those constitutional guarantees, which cannot depend on the decision of the Minister with wide and unconstrained discretion to allow or refuse South African citizenship.