A Home Affairs senior official has come under fire from a Western Cape High Court judge for treating an Ethiopian national who applied for asylum status “with disdain and inhumanely”.
The man later attempted suicide.
In addition, the court said the official, Annelise van Dyk, cited as head of immigration, does this to force immigrants, such as foreign national Tsegaye Esyas, to sign documents under duress.
In a recent judgment in the Western Cape High Court, Judge James Lekhuleni rebuked Van Dyk for her unacceptable and deplorable behaviour and removed her from Esyas’s case, which was referred back to the Paarl Magistrate’s Court to be heard on review by a different magistrate.
Numerous attempts to get comment from the Home Affairs Department’s acting deputy director-general, Modiri Matthews, provincial manager Yusuf Simons and the department’s spokesperson, Siya Qoza, were unsuccessful by deadline.
Attempts to get comment from Van Dyk were also unsuccessful.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said: “The NPA abides by the decision of the court as it has not opposed the relief that was sought by the applicant.”
In the judgment it was also noted that Esyas’s family were misled into paying a R1 000 admission of guilt fine after Van Dyk had told them it was a payment for bail. Judge Lekhuleni ordered that the money be paid back to the family.
Esyas is unable to speak and understand English. His ordeal started when he wanted to make an application for asylum status after he fled his country because of severe political unrest but was arrested after a number of unsuccessful visits to Department of Home Affairs offices in Epping.
The judgment read: “(Esyas) attended at the immigration offices in Epping to begin the process of his own documentation. He was sent away after being told that the system was off-line.
“A few days later, he revisited the immigration offices and was told that they only serve the first 24 people per day regarding those seeking asylum.
Unfortunately, he was not among the 24 people and was again turned away.
“The applicant then travelled back to Paarl, collected some belongings, and returned to the immigration offices in Epping to sleep outside on the pavement to be part of the first 24 people for the next day. At this stage, he was desperate.”
“The following morning, he was indeed part of the first 24 people. However, they were all turned away due to load shedding ... Before he could make it back to the immigration offices for the fourth time to apply for asylum, he was arrested.”
Esyas’s court appearance went ahead without a translator present and caused him anxiety and panic as he did not understand the proceedings, which were conducted in English.
“In addition to the aforesaid, Esyas’s attorney of record has also spoken to the police officials at the Paarl police station, who confirmed that the conduct of Van Dyk was a normal occurrence. He was informed that she treats people in this manner to threaten and demean them,” the judgment read.
Challenged to respond to the allegations made against the magistrate and Van Dyk to respond to the legality of the said court proceedings, both chose not to respond, the judgment noted.
Detailing the attempted suicide incident, the court said: “On 11 April 2024, Ms Van Dyk returned to the police station to collect the applicant personally and took him to the immigration offices to sign some documents.
“According to the applicant, Ms Van Dyk was extremely hostile and racist towards him, treating the applicant with severe inhumanity, like the applicant was simply an animal.”
The applicant averred that Ms Van Dyk shouted at him and forced him to remove the top half of his clothing. However, the latter did not understand what she was saying, but he was severely distressed by her conduct.
“Ms Van Dyk forced the applicant to sign certain documents, and the applicant refused, and this angered her more. Upon returning to the police cells, the applicant averred that he felt he had no options. Ms Van Dyk tortured him to the point where he thought that his life was now in detention until deportation back to the political unrest in Ethiopia, and that made his life not worth living. There was nobody to hear his plight, and he could not undergo any more torture at the hands of Ms Van Dyk.
“At this stage, he believed that it was best to take his own life, and he attempted to hang himself.
“The police officials, however, had caught him trying to take his own life, and he was then moved to an isolated cell and placed on a suicide watch.”
Esyas, according to the court, had implored the court to ensure that Van Dyk’s conduct was investigated.
Judge Lekhuleni said: “The right to be tried and given information in a language that the accused understands or to an interpreter is entrenched in our Constitution.
“Section 35(3)(k) of the Constitution enshrines the right to be tried in a language that the accused person understands, or if that is not practicable, to have the proceedings interpreted to that language ... The right to have an interpreter or to be tried in the language the accused understands strikes at the heart of a fair trial.
“In my view, this kind of behaviour from a high-ranking government official is repugnant and objectionable to the expected tenets and attributes of a person in her position and to the Batho Pele principles ...”
Cape Times