By Palesa Matlala
• Lorraine and Lawrence Ncube were born in South Africa but are being repatriated because their Zimbabwean parents are undocumented.
• The teenagers fear they will not fit into life in Zimbabwe because they do not speak the language and have never lived there.
For Litta and Briton Moya, South Africa is the only home they have ever known.
They were both born and raised here, went to school here and built their lives here.
Now they are preparing to leave the country with their mother after their undocumented Zimbabwean parents were caught up in ongoing immigration enforcement operations.
The siblings are among thousands of foreign nationals waiting in Musina, Limpopo, to cross into Zimbabwe.
Although they were born in South Africa, they are not South African citizens.
Under South African law, every child born in the country must be registered within 30 days of birth, regardless of the parents’ nationality.
But being born in South Africa does not automatically make a child a South African citizen if the parents are undocumented foreign nationals.
For 18-year-old Lawrence, the move is frightening.
He says he knows almost nothing about Zimbabwe and fears he will not even be accepted there.
“I feel frustrated and humiliated because I don’t think life is going to be easy there. I don’t know their language,” he said.
“People tell us that when we get there, they will send us back because they say we are Bapedi.”
His sister, 16-year-old Lorraine, is facing an even bigger challenge.
She is leaving South Africa with her four-month-old baby.
The baby’s father is a South African citizen.
Lorraine said she could not leave her child behind.
“He wanted me to leave the baby here, but I couldn’t. It is impossible for a mother to leave her child behind,” she said.
Their father is not travelling with them.
The family says he fled after residents chased them from their home in Seshego outside Polokwane last week.
Now Lorraine, Lawrence, their mother and the baby are preparing to start a new life across the border.
The teenagers say they have accepted that they must leave, but they remain worried about what awaits them.
They fear they will struggle to fit into a country where they have never lived, do not know the culture well and cannot speak the local languages.
They are also worried they could be declared undesirable persons by South African immigration authorities, making it difficult to return legally in future.
Their story reflects the difficult reality facing many children born in South Africa to undocumented migrant parents.
Many have grown up knowing only South Africa, but without citizenship or permanent legal status, their future often depends on their parents’ immigration status.
As immigration enforcement continues across the country, families like the Ncubes now face painful decisions about leaving behind their homes, schools, friends and the only life they have ever known.
Pictured above: Migration centre
Image source: File
