Home Affairs Minister, Malusi Gigaba, has ordered that an audit be conducted of the enabling documents to community members who were part of the controversial Mancoba Seven Angels Ministry in Ngcobo in the Eastern Cape.
The church is at the centre of a storm after some of its members allegedly carried out the attack on the Ngcobo Police station which left five policemen and a soldier dead.
Seven people linked to the Ministry were subsequently killed in a shootout with members of a police task team investigating the police station attack.
Six people arrested in the aftermath of the 30-minute gun-battle on Friday, 23 February, just days after the police station attack in which weapons were stolen, have already appeared in court.
In a statement on Sunday, Minister Gigaba said that he had given a directive to the Provincial Manager of the Department of Home Affairs in the Eastern Cape “to commence with processes to conduct an audit of enabling documents to affected community members who were part of the Mancoba Seven Angels Ministry in Engcobo in the Eastern Cape.”
He said according to the police, members of the Ministry were forbidden to have identity documents while children were not allowed to have birth certificates and prohibited from attending school.
Section 20 of the Constitution states that no citizen may be deprived of citizenship while Section 28 (1) (a) guarantees the right to a name and a nationality for every child from birth.
“To this end, without a birth certificate, any individual’s nationality cannot be affirmed, thus rendering them stateless,” Minister Gigaba said.
“Of particular concern to me, is the exploitation of children and women whose rights have been blatantly disregarded by being denied their basic right; their sense of belonging; their birthright to identity. No individual has the authority to deny any citizen of our Republic their Constitutional right to identity through the imposition of their irrational beliefs,” he said.
“In this regard, I have given an instruction to the Provincial Manager for Home Affairs in the Eastern Cape, through the Director-General, to visit the area and conduct an audit to determine the extent to which these vulnerable members of the society have been affected, with a view, of course, to begin the process of documenting them to ensure that they reflect on the National Population Register,” Minister Gigaba said.
