Cape Town - An elderly Singapore couple seeking permanent residence in South Africa have been successful in their review application at the Western Cape High Court – a Home Affairs decision, rejecting their application was set aside on Friday and replaced with an order that the couple be issued with permanent residency within 20 days.
The director-general along with the Department of Home Affairs opposed the initial application and later amended their arguments to mitigate the substitution order, in the hope that the court would not intercede regarding the strict standards already set by the department.
However, the court was not satisfied with the reasoning provided by the director-general and the substitution order was granted.
Judge Judith Cloete in handing down judgment said, “the director-general only has himself to blame for failing to place facts before this court which could persuade it that it is not in as good a position as the director-general to make a decision”.
The couple, challenged Home Affairs in court, after the man’s permanent residence application in January 2019 was rejected in August 2021, citing a “fraudulent bank statement”.
After perusal of their application, Judge Cloete discovered that, “(he) did not submit any fraudulent documents (including bank statements) in support of his application.
“Given the director-general’s failure to identify the alleged ‘fraudulent bank statement’ the first applicant (he) was left in the dark.”
The man had gone through every avenue in requesting information from the department on how the decision was made, and after acknowledgement of receipt, six months later, nothing had materialised.
After filing the application for review and substitution, the department showed cause for its opposition and only then did he discover the issue rested with one of his bank’s verification units that had incorrectly flagged the statement.
This was later cleared by the bank after the man had filed a complaint and an investigation by the bank concluded that it had made an “error” which it forwarded to the department.
He, through his lawyers, then asked the director-general and the department to withdraw their opposition to the application but the director-general did not budge.
Instead, he explained the permanent residence application was processed in accordance with an established and strict standard operating procedure.
It was further argued that there cannot be a deviation from this procedure “under any circumstances” for fear that it would result in a negative audit against the department.
But this reasoning fell flat, according to the judge, who said if their application were to be reconsidered, there was no guarantee the same tactics would not be employed by the department in refusing the Singaporean man – with a net worth of over R49 million – from obtaining residency.
The decision was therefore set aside and replaced with an order that the couple be issued with permanent residence permits within 20 days of the order.