Families ripped apart go to court

TWO families, both of them torn apart by South Africa's controversial new immigration regulations, brought an urgent application in the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town yesterday to be reunited with their loved ones.

Zimbabwean David Henderson was declared an undesirable person after leaving South Africa – where he has lived for seven years – for a trip to Zimbabwe on May 28.

His wife and two young sons remain in South Africa.

Yesterday, Henderson's South African wife, Cherene Delorie, took Home Affair Minister Malusi Gigaba and director-general Mkuseli Apleni to court to force them to allow her husband to return while an appeal he lodged with the department is finalised.

The application was heard together with that of Brent Johnson, whose Danish wife, Louise Egedal-Johnson, was declared an undesirable person following a family holiday to Namibia in May. The couple's three-year-old child has stayed with her in Namibia.

The regulations gazetted on May 22 dictate, among other things, that a foreigner married to a South African must return to their country to apply for a spousal visa at the South African mission there.

Henderson is employed by a paint company in Cape Town. The court heard that the new regulations had not only separated his family but had left Delorie distressed and bankrupt.

Delorie said if the court did not rule in her favour she would be faced with a stark choice: either leave country, lives, schools and friends to be with Henderson or stay in South Africa without him.

Delorie's counsel, advocate David Borgstrom, argued that the new regulations had stripped immigration officials of their discretion when dealing with permits.

Johnson said his wife had been barred from re-entering the country on their return from their holiday in Namibia. They had decided it was best if their child stayed with her, so Johnson returned alone.

He said his wife had still been awaiting finalisation of her spousal application from Home Affairs at the time.

But William Mokhari SC, acting for Gigaba and Apleni, said both Henderson and Egedal-Johnson had a choice between leaving the country and sorting out their expired permits. Mokhari described their decisions to leave as "arrogance at its best".

Judge James Yekiso reserved judgment. - Philani Nombembe