By Agencies

JOHANNESBURG: The Helen Suzman Foundation was back in the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday, to try and secure a special order making its ruling overturning Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s decision to terminate the Zimbabwe Exemption Programme (ZEP) immediately enforceable.

In June, the high court upheld a challenge the foundation together with the Consortium for Refugees in South Africa had levelled against the decision.

It found the requisite public consultation hadn’t taken place before it was made.

The minister then filed an application for leave to appeal with the high court, which was argued in September and dismissed earlier in October.

He’s now indicated his intention to approach the Supreme Court of Appeal, though.

Ordinarily, once an appeal is lodged against an order that’s been handed down, that order is automatically suspended.

But the Helen Suzman Foundation wants the ruling overturning Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s decision to terminate the ZEP programme, and directing him to conduct a fair and rational inquiry into the impact thereof, to stand, while he tries to appeal it.

The foundation’s Nicole Fritz said they are taking this step “out of necessity”.

Without this application, she said, there’s a risk of the court’s judgment being suspended, which would mean that the ZEP would expire at the end of the year.

And without a court order providing certainty to ZEP holders, she said further, “their future, and that of their children will depend upon the possibility of the minister granting them further piecemeal extensions”.