Question NW1143 to the Minister of Home Affairs
22 May 2018 - NW1143
Hoosen, Mr MH to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
(1)Have certain persons (names and details furnished) been granted citizenship by his department; if so (a) in which year were they granted citizenship, (b) what number of years have they been in the country before being granted citizenship and (c) what were the motivating reasons for the department to grant them citizenship; (2) were there any appeals which were escalated to the Ministry for approval; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
(1) Imraan Butt:
Yes, under section 5(5)(a) of the South African Citizenship Act 88 of 1995.
Imaan Butt [maiden surname: Gqwetha]:
No, she is a South African citizen.
The rest of the responses relates to Imraan Butt:
a) 3 March 2005
b) He had been in the country for 3 years and 10 months. He has also been in possession of a Permanent Resident Permit for 1 year, 4 months and 13 days.
c) Mr Butt’s citizenship was granted prematurely through miscalculation by Ferreirasdorp Office in 2006. This resulted in the erroneous issuance of the naturalisation certificate. The Department noticed that various applications from Ferreirasdorp Office were not compliant with regulations and an investigation unfolded in this regard. The office manager resigned hereafter and the office was closed due to maladministration issues.
As a result of this situation, a legal opinion was sought. The legal opinion was that all applicants who had been granted citizenship without meeting the requirements but who then qualified, provided there was no fraud or other unlawful behavior on the part of the applicants in applying for naturalisation. No fraud could be proved, hence the naturalisation status quo should be maintained and deprivation should not be processed.
2. No, there was no appeal escalated to the Ministry.