HIGH COURT ORDERS RELEASE OF ZIMBABWEAN ACTIVIST DETAINED FOR HIS “STICKY OUT EARS”
On 28 May the South Gauteng High Court ordered the immediate release of detained Zimbabwean human rights defender, Petro Chatiza. Lawyers for Human Rights launched an urgent court application for the release of Chatiza who has been active in the area of evictions and housing rights in Zimbabwe for several years. He was arrested on 21 May when he tried to board a flight at OR Tambo International for Australia. He was in possession of a Zimbabwean passport and a visa issued to him by the Australian High Commission in Harare. In addition he received a 3 month visa on entry to South Africa.
He was represented by Gina Snyman of Lawyers for Human Rights. According to Snyman, “our client was apparently denied access to board his flight at the boarding gate because he looked different from his passport photo and was not carrying his Zimbabwean Identity Document, despite his passport and valid visa”. He was then detained at the Kempton Park Police Station from 21 May.
LHR argued that his possession of a valid passport with a valid visa to remain in South Africa for 3 months should have protected him legally from being declared an ‘illegal foreigner’ and that there was no basis for his arrest or detention for deportation – which was unlawful.
The state argued that the arresting immigration officer had made a decision that Chatiza did not look like the photo in his passport as his ears protruded in the photograph but not in person.
However, the immigration officer failed to take any further steps to verify his identity or to ask for an explanation of this discrepancy. Only a week after his arrest, and the institution of legal proceedings was he finally informed of the reasons for his arrest and given the opportunity to explain – According to Chatiza when his photo was taken in Zimbabwe the photographer told him that his ears must be visible, so the photographer stuffed pieces of paper behind his ears to make them more visible.
But the Immigration Act only allows for a suspected ‘illegal foreigner’ to be detained up to 48 hours for his documents to be verified – yet no immigration officials took any steps to check his documents since his arrest on 21 May 2010, or even consulted with him at the police station.
“Home Affairs have caused this man an abhorrent injustice. Our courts have consistently held that a person should not be detained for one second longer than authorities can justify the detention, but Home Affairs acts with no urgency or recognition of the rights of the people it detains”, said Snyman. “It’s also appalling that our client had to borrow a smuggled telephone from a fellow detainee to get word out of his detention, and that we only knew of it via Amnesty International in London”.
“It appears that the moratorium the Minister announced last April, on deporting Zimbabweans, has yet to be understood by immigration or police officials – because our client could not have been detained for purposes of deportation, unless he had been charged with, and convicted, of a criminal offence.”
For further information call: Gina Snyman 011 339 1960