SA citizen no longer
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
The sad day finally arrived last month when I could procrastinate no longer… I had to say goodbye to my South African citizenship.
After the mistakes made when getting my British citizenship, I couldn’t renew my South African passport which expired last month. And with a trip to SA coming up soon, I had to act quickly to get the letter that would free me to enter SA on my UK passport without fear of being arrested! 
To secure this letter, I had to send in my SA passport and ID book, and a letter of my own saying that I had voluntarily applied for British citizenship. (I also took the opportunity to point out rather sharply that if the Home Affairs website were clearer this would not have happened!)
In return, I got a battered letter that looks like a photostat with an original signature, telling me that in terms of Act blah, section blah-blah-blah of 19-something-or-other, I had forfeited my South African citizenship [by getting UK citizenship]. I’m free to reclaim it if I return to SA permanently. They also returned my passport and ID book covered with “CANCELLED” stamps. Sigh. 
