Petition for stateless youths to get into universities

A Cape Town matriculant has started a petition calling for the Department of Home Affairs to make special provisions for children born in South Africa with immigrant parents to apply for identity documents. At the time of publication, the petition had more than 25,000 signatures, writes Marecia Damons for GroundUp.

Karolyn Mujinga is among scores of South African-born children of immigrants who are struggling to enrol in tertiary institutions and to access funding to further their studies. With the refugee reception centres still closed, many young people have been left in limbo and are unable to apply for citizenship or identity documents.

Mujinga (18) was born in Cape Town and has lived in South Africa all her life. Her mother is originally from Congo. “When I was applying to university, most did not have provision for refugee applicants or asylum seeker students. It’s like we don’t even exist. I couldn’t use my birth certificate because there’s no ID number,” she said.
Full report on the GroundUp site