Cape Town - The Western Cape High Court has ordered the Department of Home Affairs to grant an elderly Singaporean couple permanent residence permits in South Africa.
The couple applied for permanent residence in 2019.
Their application was rejected by the Director General (DG) on August 26, 2021, and this was communicated to the applicants on September 14, 2021 – two years and eight months after the permanent residence applications were submitted.
The applicants approached the High Court in March and also sought an order that they be issued permanent residence permits within 20 working days, alternatively, that the DG takes a decision on their applications and delivers such decision within 30 working days, according to court papers.
The DG’s decision to refuse their permit was as a result of an alleged fraudulent bank statement submitted in support of the couple’s application.
The department had emailed FNB requesting verification of the couple’s bank accounts. On the same day, the Bank Statement Verification unit within FNB emailed the department, stating that they had analysed the statement provided and confirmed that the statement appeared to be fraudulent as the transactions reflected thereon did not correspond with the transactions on the bank’s systems.
“As soon as the record came into the applicants’ possession they contacted First National Bank and lodged a formal complaint. The bank thereafter conducted an internal investigation. It is confirmed that the correspondence sent to the DHA, by the bank, dated 19 January 2021, advising that the statements may have been fraudulent, was an error,” court papers read.
The High Court found that if the department at any relevant time had at their disposal additional information impacting negatively upon the applicants’ compliance with the “scarcity of occupational skills requirement”, or any of the other criteria governing the issue of an immigration permit, such should have been put forward.
“The respondents have had more than sufficient time and opportunity to put all the relevant facts before this court. The fact that no additional information of this kind was forthcoming justifies this court in concluding that no such information exists and that all the relevant facts are before this court. This court is therefore certainly in as good a position as the Regional Committee to make a decision regarding the applicant’s application for an immigration permit.”
The High Court ordered the couple be issued permanent residence permits within 20 working days.
Cape Times