South Africa's one million invisible children without birth certificates

Summary

Qamani Sentiwe with medals and trophies he has won playing football at the local Pinelands football club. While his coach wants him to play professionally, he can't play in tournaments because he doesn't have a birth certificate. Qamani’s dream is to one day play for the Bafana Bafanas, South Africa’s national football team. But his coach says he can’t partake in local tournaments because he doesn’t have a birth certificate. The 15-year-old is among over one million children in the country without the document, which prevents them from accessing healthcare, education, employment, and in some cases, social activities. “Sometimes I feel like I’m not a complete person,” Qamani said. “It feels like I’m not the same as other children.” Qamani’s mother was 16 when she gave birth to him in the Eastern Cape. The teenage mother did not have her own identification at the time so she could not register her son’s birth, before she abandoned him. It was then up to Qamani's grandmother to raise him in a neighbouring province, the Western Cape. Grandmother Nozibele Dada and Qamani live in a township in Langa, 10 kilometres from Cape Town in the poverty-stricken Cape Flats. Their tiny shack sleeps eight family members in the same room. Ms Dada looks tired. She stares blankly at the wall in front of her when asked about the topic of Qamani’s birth certificate. She has been fighting a years-long battle to get her grandson his documents, trying to navigate extensive bureaucratic requirements while at the same time worrying about how to fund their next meal. Ms Dada doesn’t receive any welfare grants from the government to help raise her grandson, as he doesn’t officially exist. “Every time we call Home Affairs, they tell us they will call us back,” she said. “We’ve been waiting for four years.” Qamani Sentiwe (left) and his grandmother Nozibele Dada in front of their small home in Langa, a township in Cape Town. © Tom Canetti, FRANCE 24 There is a backlog of more than 250,000 people w...