Diritto Pubblico Comparato ed Europeo

Sommario

1. Introduzione. – 2. Il South African Citizenship Act del 1995. – 2.1. Acquisizione e perdita della cittadinanza. – 2.2. Le innovazioni del Citizenship Act del 1995: la riunificazione della disciplina della cittadinanza e le politiche di naturalizzazione. – 2.3. La tutela del fanciulli apolidi. – 2.4. La disciplina della doppia cittadinanza. – 3. La disciplina costituzionale in materia di cittadinanza. – 3.1. La tutela rafforzata dei diritti dei fanciulli. – 4. I “diritti di cittadinanza”. – 4.1. I diritti politici. – 4.2. La giurisprudenza costituzionale. – 5. Considerazioni conclusive.

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analyse what it means to be a citizen in contemporary South Africa according to the law, the constitution and the judgments of the Constitutional Court. The South African Citizenship Act is put in context: from an historical point of view citizenship was instrumentalised by the apartheid regime. In fact, citizenship constituted one of the pillars of the grand apartheid project, culminating with the de-nationalisation of 8 million Black South Africans. From a legal point of view, the analysis is carried out on a double track. On the one hand the Act of 1995 is inscribed in the general frame of the rights and obligations prescribed by Chapter 2 of the 1996 constitution, i.e. the bill of rights; on the other the article explores the limits of the notion of citizenship in South African society through the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court. In particular, we focus on the issue of citizenship as a possible ground for unfair discrimination. The most remarkable aspect of the Citizenship Act of 1995, is that it creates one single rule for the whole country and for the whole South African population. Moreover, this discipline is anchored on democratic principles and citizenship is not an empty status. In fact, the 1996 constitution recognises to everybody the majority of rights, freedoms and benefits it entrenches, but it reserves to South African citizens political rights, together with the right to a passport and the right to choose an occupation. Most importantly, considering the history of the country, it gives them the right to vote.