The Department of Home Affairs says an urgent court bid made by a Congolese man to stay in SA was based on a pack of lies.
Maniaga Mukisi, of Ballito, brought an urgent application in the Durban High Court two weeks ago to prevent the Department of Home Affairs from deporting him. He said he needed to stay in the country so he could care for his two-year-old SA-born daughter.
Judge Fikile Mokgohloa granted an interim order interdicting the department from deporting him, pending the outcome of an appeal or review.
In replying papers filed yesterday, an immigration official in the department, Lindumusa Nxele, said Mukisi had “told lies” and given no proof he was the father of the child, or that she even existed.
In court papers, Mukisi said he came to SA as a refugee in 2005 and, two years later, began a relationship with an SA woman, Phindile Nsele, and that they had a daughter in June 2010.
He said Nsele’s family had accepted him as their son-in-law because he had paid lobolo. Nsele died of breast cancer in June this year before the couple could get legally married, and Mukisi then received notice that he was to be deported.
Mukisi said he had tried to apply for permanent residence since he was the parent of an SA child, but department officials had refused his application.
Nxele said Mukisi’s application was an abuse of court processes. He added that Mukisi could be arrested, as the department had no record of him having entering the country legally.
Nxele said that, in an asylum application apparently made by Mukisi in 2008, he had said he was married to a Zimbabwean woman and had not mentioned Nsele.
“The applicant could not have forgotten to mention Nsele as his spouse when he completed his form if he was indeed married to her, as he would like this court to believe.
“He also explained that his [Mukisi’s] application for permanent residence was not completed because he did not have a passport and he also did not have the birth certificate for the child.
“Instead of bringing the documents… the applicant [Mukisi] went to a legal rights non-governmental organisation. There were no errors in the decisions of the respondent [the department]. He should have brought the requested documents to the respondent instead of coming to court.”
Nxele further claimed that any urgency in the application had been “self-created”, as Mukisi had been aware of his impending deportation as early as August 2012.
Yesterday, Judge Themba Sishi confirmed a consent order which extended the interim order against the department.
Mukisi was also ordered to file a supplementary affidavit by next week and the case was adjourned indefinitely.
