My family acquired British citizenship. Is it possible to reinstate our South African citizenship and have dual citizenship?

The long answer

You may know that the Constitutional Court ruled on 6 May 2025 that the automatic loss of South African citizenship for people who acquired another nationality, was unconstitutional. The part of the South African Citizenship Act 88 of 1995 – Section 6(1)(a) – which required people to write a letter of retention to the Minister of Home Affairs asking to retain their citizenship or automatically lose their citizenship, was struck down by the Court. The judgment applies from the date the Act was passed in 1995, meaning that those who lost their citizenship under this provision are now considered to have never lost it.

The judgment restores citizenship rights to affected individuals, allowing them to regain full rights and status without needing a formal application for reinstatement. So those who lost South African citizenship have regained full citizenship with immediate effect. Thus, your family’s South African citizenship is restored, and you can have dual South African and British citizenship.

But, as an article updated in October 2025 by Emigration Assist, points out, there is a distinction between administrative and legal reality: databases at the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and overseas missions have not yet been completely updated, and they state that if your record still indicates "citizenship lost", you may encounter difficulties when applying for a South African passport, ID, or interacting with banks and other institutions.

They also advise that if you acquired foreign citizenship without asking to retain your South African citizenship, you should verify your status urgently rather than assume that all has been resolved by the Court ruling. 

The DHA has announced that a digital portal is being developed for global access to citizenship verification and retention/reinstatement applications. Emigration Assist says in their Retention of South African Citizenship guide that the dedicated online portal was initially expected to launch in June 2025, but as of October 2025 it was still in the testing/roll-out phase.

But though the administrative business may still take some time to be sorted out, your family’s South African citizenship has been legally restored with immediate effect; there is no need to make a formal application for reinstatement, and you can have dual South African / British citizenship. 

Wishing you the best,
Athalie