In 2021, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced that the special permit that was first introduced more than a decade ago, would be terminated.
The Pretoria High Court has declared Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s decision to discontinue the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) unconstitutional and invalid.
In 2021, Motsoaledi announced that the special permit – which was first introduced more than a decade ago – would be terminated.
This prompted court challenges from various civil society organisations including the Helen Suzman Foundation and the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa.
On Wednesday, the court ruled in their favour finding, among others, that proper public consultation didn’t take place before the decision was made.
The court also granted the Zimbabwe Immigration Federation – another organisation that has challenged the move – an interim interdict preventing ZEP holders from being arrested or deported for now.
In Other News – 3 G4S employees implicated in Thabo Bester escape saga to remain in jail
The three latest suspects to be arrested in connection with the audacious Thabo Bester escape have been remanded in custody after making their first appearance in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
Bester faked his own death and escaped from the G4S-operated Mangaung Correctional Centre in May last year.
He was re-arrested in April 2023 by Tanzanian authorities in Arusha after he fled the country with his lover, Dr Nandipha Magudumana. read more…