17 Mar 2024

The Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs is not aware of any stateless children in Botswana born of Batswana and foreign national parents.

Labour and Home Affairs minister Ms Annah Mokgethi told Parliament on March 15 that children born of Batswana and non citizen parents possessed rights to Botswana citizenship in terms of sections four and five of the Citizenship Act, therefore they could not be stateless.

Section four of the Citizenship Act, she said, provided for citizenship by birth, adding that section five provided for citizenship by descent.

“Regarding the issue of omitted names, my ministry has observed that children mostly affected are those whose parents have not given consent for their names to be included in the birth certificate. This also happens in cases where informal names are used to register the child’s birth. This makes it difficult to determine the child’s citizenship, especially if the mother is a non citizen,” she said.

Therefore, the minister encouraged fathers to give consent for their names to be included in birth certificates of children they birthed with non citizens, and also provide their correct details to facilitate birth registration.

She said once such consent was given, the registration of a child and issuance of birth certificate would be done. She added that there was no requirement of DNA tests by the ministry for registration. She however said DNA may be used to prove parentage to the court. Ms Mokgethi therefore said there was no need for government to incur costs for DNA because there was no need for a DNA for child registration.

She said the ministry appreciated challenges faced by individuals lacking proper identification documents.

“In an endeavour to leave no one behind we continue to conduct outreach activities targeted at educating the public on the importance of registration as well as ensuring access to services. As I have indicated, you would also appreciate that it also takes parents to give consent to facilitate the (registration) process,” she said. 

The minister further said the ministry continued to register eligible citizens as required. She said the ministry had experienced situations where applications for either birth on national registration could not be processed due to false declarations. She however said such statistics had not been consolidated.

Ms Mokgethi said where information was incomplete for National Identity Card registration, applicants were usually asked to update the records.

Furthermore, she said the ministry had established on site registration centres in major health facilities to ensure that births were registered on time and accurately.

“In addition, there are service centres in any district across the country,” she said.

She urged parents to ensure timely registration of their children.

MP for Francistown West Mr Ignatius Moswaane had asked whether the ministry was aware of stateless children in Botswana, mainly children born of Batswana and foreigner parents. He said most of the children affected were those whose Batswana parents were omitted from their birth certificate or names were wrong.

Mr Moswaane further said the Omang office required DNA tests, which were expensive for most of Batswana. He asked the minister to state why government couldn’t incur costs of DNA tests on behalf of the affected.

He further asked why a child born in Botswana, holding birth certificate, schooled in Botswana and had never had any other country documents,  could not be given  Omang cards.

The MP  wanted to know how many IDs had been rejected because of false declarations, and incomplete birth certificates details. ENDS