Andrew Stegmann

Dad takes takes on Gigaba over baby’s citizenship

Johannesburg – An SANDF member has taken Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba to the high court after his department allegedly refused to register his eight-month-old daughter, born to a Congolese woman, as a South African national.

Menzile Lawrence Naki filed papers in the high court in Grahamstown on Tuesday in which he gave a detailed account of his troubles in registering his daughter, who was born in February. In court papers, Naki stated that his child was born at Settler’s Hospital in Grahamstown and her mother is a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He said he met Dimitrila Marie Ndovya while he was deployed as a peacekeeper in Goma in 2008.

“We fell in love soon after we met and I later proposed to her. In 2008, we entered into a customary marriage in the DRC.

“My mission ended in 2009 and I returned to South Africa. Dimitrila and I remained in constant communication. I returned to the DRC in 2013, on another peacekeeping mission,” he said.
He said in September last year, Ndovya came to South Africa “leaving our elder child in the DRC in the care of her mother. She travelled on her Congolese passport, having been issued with a three-month visitor’s visa in Lubumbashi. The visa expired on December 23, 2015.