BREAKING NEWS – The Constitutional Court of South Africa has today, 06 May 2025, made many Dutch nationals (and other foreigners elsewhere) South African again. Some without their knowledge, and all withouth their consent or their own doing. Reason, the automatic loss of SA citizenship in its citizenship law was against its own constitution and the law has now been scrapped as if never existed. The court has decided to make this retrospective from 06 October 1995.
Want it or not, yes, you are now a dual national (or triple or more). For some this is great news. But it could also result in trouble. The Netherlands is one of the few developped/European countries actively discouraging dual nationality and trying to force their single nationality onto its citizens. If you are currently applying for Dutch nationality, or want to apply soon, then the Dutch government could change its policy and require you to actively renounce your South African citizenship/nationality when becoming Dutch. This is old Dutch policy and it is now just awaiting the Dutch response.
However, those who already thought to have lost their South African citizenship/nationality are in a more difficult situation. Because the Dutch authorities will now need to decide if they are going to insist these dual nationals the order to renounce as well. Or in extreme matters take their Dutch nationality away from them (unlikely).
The good news is that there are legal grounds in Dutch law to argue that this is not the individual’s own doing and therefore the Dutch authorities should allow this retrospective repair of SA citizenship / nationality. However, we will not know if the Dutch authorities and far right government will want to accept this reasoning. This creates a level of uncertainty for those concerned.
The Dutch government and authorities are know to have no remorse in these matters. The Dutch law allows the automatic loss of Dutch nationality (similarly to the now scrapped SA law) ever since the Dutch nationality law came into existince in 1893. Modern times after WW2 saw some hope for modernisation of the Dutch law but this was not to be. With the changes to the law of 1985 and 2003 we saw tens of thousands of Dutch nationals being stripped of their nationality and heritage. This is still practise today.
It is thus possible that the Dutch authorities will use this opportunity to strip more people of their nationality. On the other hand there are good legal reasons why this should not happen, and can be contested. Over the next few months or this year we will see how this will develop.
My recomendation is that those affected will not bow to the Dutch demand of renouncing South African nationality. To be clear, those affected are those who previously became Dutch and were considered to have lost their South African citizenship. They are now South African again.
If you are confronted with legal issues then please do not hesitate to contact our office, Habsburg Legal Services. We are specialists on the Dutch nationality law and through experience with our South African clients also got to know the South African law very well.
For those who previously forgot to get their South African Retention of Citizenship Letter in time, good news. For those who are in the process now and thought they need a South African Retention of Citizenship Letter, good news you can save the time, effort and expense. No need for a Retention Letter anymore.
Practical matters
The court ruling makes you South African again, retrospectively. However, the bureacracy needs to follow suit on this. The Home Affairs Minister has anounced to open an online portal next month through which South Africans can submit to have their citizenship recognised again (with passports etc following of course). What this process is going to look like time will tell.
The full court ruling can be read below. Let me just point out the most important part, the order at the end. The South African Constitutional Court declared:
“I make the following order:
- The order of constitutional invalidity of the Supreme Court of Appeal is confirmed.
- It is declared that section 6(1)(a) of the South African Citizenship Act 88 of 1995 is inconsistent with the Constitution and is invalid from its promulgation on 6 October 1995.
- It is further declared that those citizens who lost their citizenship by operation of section 6(1)(a) of the South African Citizenship Act 88 of 1995 are deemed not to have lost their citizenship.”
For those affected in other countries (not the Netherlands). The same principles apply and it depends how your adopted country will react to this ruling.
For the Dutch readers, it is time that the Dutch constitution als got an article protecting regular citizens from being stripped of their nationality (often unaware and against their wishes)?
Written by
Kris von Habsburg
Specialist Dutch Nationality Lawyer (jurist)