Born in SA but not a citizen - matriculant`s university hopes `shattered`

Source: GroundUp, 27/11/2018

His parents are Ghanaian and came to South Africa in 1996. They
were granted permanent residence in 1997. Odei was born in South
Africa in 2000 but does not have permanent residence status
because his mother claims they were not properly informed by the
Department of Home Affairs of the required process.
You might think that anyone born in the republic is automatically
a citizen, but as Odei`s situation shows, it`s more complicated
than that.
Odei said he needs to apply for funding through the National
Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) because his family cannot
afford to pay for university. However, to be eligible for NSFAS
the applicant must have a South African ID. And to apply for an ID
as a foreign national you need a permanent residence permit.
According to home affairs spokesperson Thabo Mokgola, Odei`s
parents were supposed to take Odei`s handwritten birth certificate
to the Ghanaian embassy to get a passport for him.
He said the parents then needed to go back to home affairs to get
Odei placed on the department`s files so he could be granted the
same status as his parents, that of permanent residence.
`No one informed me of this process`
`When he turns 18 years old, he could then apply for South African
citizenship,` said Mokgola.
Odei`s mother Elizabeth said that while they used the handwritten
letter to get a Ghanaian passport for Odei, she was not aware they
needed to go back to the department to put him on its files.
Instead, they applied for a temporary residence permit for Odei to
regularise his stay in the country.
`No one informed me of this process (that they had to ask the
Department of Home Affairs to put Odei on their files). I was only
fighting to renew the temporary residence permit,` said Elizabeth.
She said Odei`s father died in 2014 and she cannot afford
university fees.
According to Elizabeth, they attempted several times without
success to renew Odei`s temporary residence permit. Odei said he
had to go through lawyers to get a confirmation letter from the
Department of Home Affairs permitting him to stay in the country.
The letter is valid until the end of November 2018.
Mokgola said Odei now has to first legalise his stay in the
country by applying for a temporary residence visa before he can
apply for a permanent residence permit. He said the average
processing time for a permanent residence application is eight
months, but that the department can make an exception to expedite
an application.
`With matric results normally released in the first week of
January, there is [less than] eight weeks left for him to gather
all the necessary documents for the applications and submit to DHA
(the Department of Home Affairs) for processing. Although not an
impossible situation, the time is very tight for the department to
assist,` said Mokgola.
However, the closing date for 2019 NSFAS applications is November
30.
`I have been doing very well in my studies and am still hoping to
do very well in my final matric examinations,` said Odei, who
wants to study accounting.
`My hopes are shattered.`