A Mthatha-based herbalist who admitted that she was illegally in South Africa has won her case for damages in the Eastern Cape High Court, after a judge ruled that her rights as a detained or arrested person were violated by her treatment at the hands of bungling Home Affairs officials who did not know the law.

The Eastern Cape High Court has ordered the Department of Home Affairs to pay damages up to a R1-million to a woman who admitted that she was illegally in the country after she was unlawfully detained for a month.

"It is rather confounding that the [Department of Home Affairs] pleaded ignorance of the provisions of section 34 of the Immigration Act. Section 34 is the provision of the Immigration Act empowering immigration officers to arrest and detain illegal foreigners pending deportation," Judge Lindiwe Risi said in her ruling on 30 July 2024.

The woman, whose identity was not made public by the court, was arrested on 18 November 2022, for failing to have a permit or visa to be in South Africa. She was brought to the Mthatha Magistrates' Court on 21 November 2022, where she pleaded guilty to contravening the Immigration Act and she was then fined.

She was subsequently detained at the Mthatha Central Police Station from 21 November 2022, pending her deportation. But she was released on 22 December 2022 after legal intervention.

She sued the Department...