The High Court in Pretoria has ordered the Department of Home Affairs to immediately allow 36-year-old Mozambican national Felizardo Jose Zandamela to enter South Africa, to seek medical attention for injuries sustained in Mpumalanga in 2023.
Image: Supplied
The High Court in Pretoria has ordered the Department of Home Affairs to immediately allow 36-year-old Mozambican national Felizardo Jose Zandamela to enter South Africa, after the truck driver was last year declared “undesirable” and prohibited from entering South Africa for five years.
Detailed court papers seen by IOL show that last week, Judge Richard Moultrie heard and granted Zandamela’s urgent application filed by the Mozambican man's attorney, Eucan Gwanangura of Pretoria-based law firm, Gwanangura Incorporated Attorneys.
Advocate Taurai Munotsiwa, briefed by Gwanangura Incorporated Attorneys, represented Zandamela in court, seeking urgent relief which was accordingly granted by the judge.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber, and the Director General responsible for Immigration at Home Affairs were cited in the court papers, and were sued in their official capacities as the executive authorities for the government’s Department of Home Affairs.
The High Court in Pretoria has ordered the Department of Home Affairs to immediately allow 36-year-old Mozambican national Felizardo Jose Zandamela to enter South Africa, to seek medical attention for injuries sustained in Mpumalanga in 2023.
Image: Supplied
In his court order, Moultrie ordered that the Department of Home Affairs be interdicted and restrained from enforcing and implementing the five year ban issued against Zandamela.
“It is ordered that part A of this application is enrolled and heard as one of urgency, dispensing with the forms and services in terms of Rule 6.
“Pending the final determination of part B, the respondents (Minister of Home Affairs and the Director General) are interdicted and restrained from implementing and/or enforcing the declaration under reference number LEB/202403/747908 dated March 28 2024 that the applicant (Mr. Zandamela) is an undesirable person,” the court ruled.
Legal eagle, Pretoria attorney, Eucan Gwanangura of Gwanangura Incorporated Attorneys took the case to court on behalf truck driver of Jose Zandamela.
Image: Supplied
Costs in the urgent application are reserved for determination in part B of the case, which will be heard at a later date.
Part B of the case will focus on Zandamela’s application for the court to review and set-aside the Department of Home Affairs’ decision to impose the ban endorsed in his passport. The five-year overstay ban was given in March 2024 and is meant to keep Zandamela out of South Africa until March 2029.
The Mozambican national based in Matola, Maputo has also requested the court to order the Department of Home Affairs - with the Minister and Director General cited as respondents - to pay costs for his application.
In part A of the double-barrel application, Zandamela sought an interim interdict on an urgent basis, to be permitted to enter South Africa to obtain medical help for his fractured right tibia and fibula - two long bones located in the lower leg. Zandamela argued that Department of Home Affairs had slapped him with the overstay ban despite evidence showing that he was under “medical detention” in different Mpumalanga hospitals from December 23, 2023 until March 28, 2024.
Zandamela is employed by a Mozambican company namely NIA Logistics, as a professional haulage truck driver. The freight company transports goods to and from different countries across the region of southern Africa.
On December 20, 2023, Zandamela entered South Africa via the Lebombo port of entry. He was assigned to ferry a load of chrome from Sekhukhune district in Limpopo. At the border, Home Affairs officials gave him 30 days to be in South Africa for the trip. The 30-day period was due to lapse on January 19, 2024.
On December 20, 2023, Mozambican truck driver Felizardo Jose Zandamela entered South Africa via the Lebombo port of entry but was later involved in an accident while heading back to Mozambique.
Image: Supplied
After collecting his load, Zandamela was on his way back to Mozambique, using the N4 in Komatipoort, when his truck had a breakdown roughly 10 kilometers before the border, on December 22, 2023.
While a team of mechanics was fixing the truck, at around 10pm, Zandamela took his mattress from the truck and found a spot to sleep overnight, in the veld near his truck. At around 3am on December 23 2023, while Zandamela was asleep in the veld, a driver of a vehicle with Gauteng number plates, belonging to Fraser Gray Construction, lost control and his vehicle veered off the road. The out of control vehicle ploughed into Zandamela, injuring him.
Paramedics later transported Zandamela to Shongwe Hospital in Mpumalanga, and days later he was transferred to Rob Ferreira Hospital in Mbombela, where he underwent surgery. During the surgery, orthopaedic hardware was installed into Zandamela’s leg and he was admitted in that hospital until January 23, 2024, notwithstanding the stamp in his passport that demanded him to leave the Republic of South Africa by January 19, 2024.
On January 23 2024, the Rob Ferreira Hospital transferred Zandamela back to Shongwe Hospital where he was admitted again for further medical observation. The truck driver remained admitted at Shongwe Hospital until March 28, 2024, when he was finally discharged. On his discharge, Zandamela was instructed to come for a medical review on April 11, 2024.
Immediately after release from hospital, Zandamela embarked on his journey back home to Mozambique via the Lebombo Border post.
Pretoria attorney, Eucan Gwanangura leaving court with advocate Taurai Munotsiwa, who represented represented Mozambican national Felizardo Jose Zandamela in court.
Image: Supplied
"As Mr. Zandamela was going through exiting procedures on the South African side of the border, he was informed by the immigration officials that he had overstayed by 69 days. At such a time, the applicant had with him supporting documents to the effect that he had been involved in a car accident and furthermore that he had been hospitalised from December 23, 2023 until March 28, 2024," the court papers stated.
"Importantly, at such a time, the wounds from Zandamela’s surgery as well as the orthopaedic hardware were clearly visible for the Department of Home Affairs official, as the applicant showed to them his injured leg."
The court heard that Home Affairs officials manning the busy port of entry did not buy Zandamela’s explanation and slapped him with the five-year-ban, with the stamp endorsed on a page in his Mozambican passport.
Due to the impending hospital review requiring Zandamela to be at Shongwe Hospital in Mpumalanga in April 2024, the truck driver's empathetic employers intervened and started writing to the Department of Home Affairs, appealing the ban and explaining the circumstances.
The court heard that over 50 emails were sent to the Department of Home Affairs, accompanied by numerous phone calls.
In some of the communication seen by IOL, the transport company NIA Logistics begged Department of Home Affairs, informing the department that “a hardworking man’s future is at stake”.
Before turning to the High Court in Pretoria, transport company NIA Logistics begged Department of Home Affairs, informing the department that “a hardworking man’s future is at stake”.
Image: Jacques Naude / Independent Newspapers
Running out of options and still nursing the wounds, on April 10, 2024, Zandamela travelled to Lebombo port of entry seeking to persuade Home Affairs officials to allow him entry into South Africa so that he could go for the medical review at Shongwe Hospital.
The court heard that border officials flatly denied Zandamela entry into South Africa and turned him away. The Mozambican was told to travel to the South African embassy situated in Maputo, to seek a review of the ban.
The High Court in Pretoria heard that 11 months of slow engagement with the Department of Home Affairs have lapsed and Zandamela had found no joy. His medical condition had deteriorated rapidly, with the orthopaedic hardware still in his leg.
Through the legal team, Zandamela also told the court that if it were not for his employer NIA Logistics which assisted with financial resources to tackle the issue, he did not have the means to fight the decision of the South African government department.
The court also heard that Zandamela, a father of three, has suffered “irreparable harm” in the 11 months he has been denied access to the medical facilities in Mpumalanga.
Zandamela added that he is his family’s breadwinner and if he loses his life or limbs due to the failure to get the required medical help due to the ban, his family would be left destitute.
When IOL reached out to Zandamela's attorney, Gwanangura, for comment on the court wrangle, the legal eagle remarked that "justice has been served".
Gwanangura added that there was need for the Home Affairs’ officials, under the circumstances, to stringently exercise their authority within the confines of the rule of law.
jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za
IOL