Full statement by the Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) on its court application to suspend the arrest or deportation of Zimbabwe Exemption Permits (ZEP) holders, pending an appeal by South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi:
The Helen Suzman Foundation has been compelled to bring an application in order to safeguard the integrity of the judgment finding that the termination of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permits (ZEP) was unlawful and invalid.
The Minister of Home Affairs seeks now to appeal that judgment. In the ordinary course, the leave to appeal process suspends the operation of the underlying order.
In this case, the risk arises that the expiry date of the ZEP could be run down by running out the appeal process – meaning that there would be no real relief to be granted ZEP holders if that is the Courts’ ultimate determination.
HSF approached the Minister asking that he agree to observe the protections extended to ZEP holders pending the conclusion of the appeal process. This was refused. It is on this basis that HSF approaches the court.
Shadowy organisations now seek deliberately to misrepresent the HSF’s application – misrepresentations that began circulating online, surprisingly, less than one day after HSF had filed its papers with the parties.
These deliberate misrepresentations are more than mischievous. They look to endanger the staff of HSF, all of whom are South African.
Even more sinisterly, they provide a vivid demonstration of what the Economist magazine this week called “paranoid nationalism.”
These blatant misrepresentations come hard on the heels of incendiary attempts to heap the blame for last week’s devastating fire in Johannesburg’s city centre, in which so many died and were injured, not on those truly responsible but absurdly on NGOs.
No one should have to be reminded of the role that NGOs have played in this country in securing rights and fighting against corruption and malfeasance.
Coordinated attempts to discredit NGOs and erode the public’s trust through lies and misrepresentation are an attack on democracy itself.
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