Children who lack official documents are being prevented from enrolling in certain schools in South Africa, the local news site GroundUp reports.

That is despite education department guidelines telling schools they should conditionally admit pupils while their parents are waiting for their immigration papers, it says.

South Africa attracts migrants from across the continent, with about 70% of foreigners coming from neighbouring Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Lesotho.

Spokesmen for the education departments of Western Cape and Eastern Cape are quoted respectively by GroundUp as saying they were drafting their own instructions to schools, and that demands for documents were “irregular”.