Ernest Mabuza
22 December 2008
Johannesburg — ZIMBABWEAN teacher Zwelani Ncube expressed his relief at the weekend after a court ordered the government to issue him with a permit to work in SA.
The Grahamstown High Court ordered home affairs director-general Mavuso Msimang on Thursday to issue Ncube with a work permit within 30 days. It also ordered Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and Msimang pay Ncube compensation of R16000 for the loss of salary, and the costs of the 11 two-hour taxi rides that Ncube took to the home affairs offices in Queenstown to apply for the permit.
Ncube said that with a work permit he could now apply for his job. The principal of the school that appointed him told him about the judgment.
"It has been a one-year-long struggle to get a work permit," Ncube said. A qualified teacher who came to SA because his pay in Zimbabwe was less than R150 a month, he spent more than nine months applying in vain for a work permit in SA.
Ncube applied for a job at the Molteno High School in Eastern Cape in November last year as there was no qualified South African applicant to fill the post.
The school's letter of appointment in December said that Ncube would be employed from January this year.
When Ncube arrived in SA in November last year, he had only a visitor's permit, which did not allow him to work.
Ncube made several visits to the department of home affairs's Queenstown district office between December and August this year without getting any assistance.
When his application for a work permit was turned down in September, he appealed against the decision. When no reply came from the department, Ncube launched an application asking that the court direct the department to issue him with a work permit. The case was heard on November 20.
Two days after the matter was heard last month, Msimang dismissed Ncube's appeal.
Judge Lusindiso Pakade said the delays of more than six months by the department before the decision to refuse Ncube a work permit and the delaying tactics of the home affairs officials were exceptional circumstances that justified the court's interference with the discretion of the minister and to substitute her decision.
Pakade said there was no need for Ncube's lawyers, the Legal Resources Centre, to launch another application to review and set aside Msimang's decision of November 22 to dismiss Ncube's appeal.
"The application for review is an illustrious example of litigation (that) was instituted for the purpose of simply abusing the due process of the law, and there is no reason why the court should not show its displeasure for such a conduct by a punitive costs order against attorneys of record."
Pakade was also not happy with the conduct of Ncube's attorney who called the judge on November 24, asking when she should expect judgment to be delivered as Ncube's position would be advertised on November 27.
"I was unpleasantly surprised by that unprecedented attitude shown to this court, and I raised an objection to it."
Pakade said the attorney knew already she had interrupted the judgment by bringing in an application for review on the purported urgency which was not explained in court papers. "That conduct borders on interference with the proper functioning of the courts and should be deprecated."
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