Pretoria High Court Reserves Judgement In ZEP Permits Ruling Appeal
The Pretoria High Court has reserved its judgement against the SA Department of Home Affairs’ leave to appeal an earlier ruling on the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) scheme against it.
The application by the Department of Home Affairs was heard on Monday, reported The Star via IOL.
The Department sought to challenge the court’s ruling that the termination of ZEP permits by the South African government is unlawful.
Judge Colleen Collis said that judgment will be handed down after recess and once the new terms commence. He said:
We are going to reserve our judgment on those two applications for leave to appeal, and then we will hand it down as soon as it is ready.
Parties must bear in mind that the court is now on recess, so we accommodated the hearing of this application because you had already made the request during term, but we will only hand down the judgment once the new term commences.
We will advise the parties, and it will be uploaded into case lines.
Earlier this year, a full bench of the high court ruled that the Department of Home Affairs and Minister Aaron Motsoaledi did not follow proper processes in terminating the ZEP permits.
The ZEP scheme has benefited 178 000 Zimbabweans who have been in South Africa for 14 years.
The judgement bars the South African government from “arresting, issuing an order for deportation, or detaining any holder of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit… for any reason related to him or her not having any valid exemption certificate in his or her passport”.
The ruling followed a challenge brought by the Helen Suzman Foundation, which has been fighting hard to stop the department from cancelling the ZEP permits.
More: Pindula News
