SWA ID holders deprived of govt services

Jemima Beukes
The National Council yesterday deliberated on how people with South West African (SWA) identity documents are languishing in poverty, unable to access government services such as grants.

National Council member Paulus Mbango addressed the 'anomaly’ that those who entered Namibia after independence have acquired permanent residence and their offspring full citizenship, while those who were born outside the country because their parents fled their homeland during the liberation struggle have been left out in the cold.

He made these remarks during a debate on the Regularisation of Status of Certain Residents of Namibia, Their Descendants and Foreign Spouses Bill, insisting that the government must admit that it has committed gross injustice.

“The Namibian war was not fought in Namibia, it was fought in Angola and that contributed to the displacement of people. It is quite unfortunate that a person who came to Namibia in 1978 is still not documented - that is gross injustice. Then you also find parents who have citizenship with naturalisation, but their children born here are denied citizenship. For whatever reason, [the] home affairs [ministry] misinterpreted the constitution. At least everyone with a SWA identification should be given citizenship, because even those parents have reached a point of no return - they cannot go back to where they come from,” he said.



'Never negotiable'

The bill aims to provide for the acquisition of Namibian citizenship for holders of SWA IDs, citizenship by birth or descent for their descendants, and citizenship by marriage for their foreign spouses.

Some parliamentarians recounted how people with SWA IDs are suffering because they cannot access old age grants or their own pension funds due to disputed documentation. “Nowadays, people come into this country and after five years, they have full citizenship, but these people with the SWA IDs cannot even vote in this country or live a life, while the children of their children are born Namibians.”

Katutura East constituency councillor Richard Goaseb said the situation is so dire that a man in his area told him “it would be better if I just die" because he cannot get an old age grant and even drought relief is "impossible to get”.

Harald Kambrude of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) said birthright and citizenship is never negotiable and should not be determined by documents. He stressed that when people want to apply for passports and they don't have birth certificates, home affairs ministry staff should advise that such a person can get two elders to make declarations on their behalf.

“I cannot understand that if that was done in the case of the SWA ID holders, why [the ministry has] not granted these people citizenship. Speaking about birthdays, I feel for people who cannot even take out their birth certificates and say 'this is my birthday',” he said.



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Namibian Sun 2024-11-22

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