Media statement from Freedom Under Law, Section27, Defend Our Democracy Campaign, Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, SERI and Corruption Watch
30 June 2022
Three features distinguish our country from many other young democracies: first, respect for the Rule of Law; second, a vibrant civil society; and, thirdly and crucially, a fearless judiciary.
This week we saw a glaring instance of executive abuse of all these features. Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, saw fit to lend his name to an attack on civil society organisations – all because a reputable NGO has dared to take a ministerial decision on judicial review.
Without a shred of justification, the minister issued the most outrageous public statement vilifying the Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF), impugning its integrity and patriotism, accusing it of racism and treachery – and in the process gratuitously smeared the NGO community as a whole.
This flood of invective was released because the HSF had applied to court for an order affecting the lives of some 180 000 Zimbabweans lawfully living in South Africa. Essentially HSF asks that the minister reconsider a decision he took some time ago terminating, with effect from the end of this year, a special dispensation whereby people and their families have for more than a decade been allowed to live in South Africa.