Tantoush v Refugee Appeal Board and Others

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Judge: Murphy J
• Judgment Date: 11 September 2007
• Counsel: Anton Katz (with Adv Du Plessis) for the applicant NM Arendse SC (with O Matjila) for the respondents
• Hearing Date: 14 August 2007
• Citation: 2008 (1) SA 232 (T)
• Court: Transvaal Provincial Division
• Docket Number: 13182/06

Murphy J: C

[1] The applicant has made application, in terms of s 6 of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000 (PAJA) read with s 33 of the Constitution, to review and set aside two decisions relating to his quest for refugee status and asylum under the Refugees Act 130 of 1998 (the Act). D

[2] The applicant's application for refugee status was first rejected on 11 March 2005 by the fifth respondent, the Refugee Status Determination Officer (RSDO). He appealed against this decision to the first respondent, the Refugee Appeal Board (RAB). On 12 December 2005 the RAB handed down a decision in which a majority of its members dismissed the appeal. The majority decision was handed down by E the chairperson of the RAB, the second respondent. Advocate MM Hassim handed down a minority decision in which he held that he would have upheld the appeal.

[3] The applicant now seeks to have both decisions set aside and requests this court in terms of F s 8(1)(c)(ii)(aa) of PAJA, read with s 172(1)(b) of the Constitution, to correct the decisions of the RSDO and RAB by substituting them with a decision declaring that the applicant is entitled to refugee status and asylum in terms of ss 2 and 3 of the Act. Only the first and second respondents filed opposing affidavits. I will refer to them collectively as the G respondents. The Minister and the Director-General of Home Affairs (the third and fourth respondents) and the RSDO have not filed opposing affidavits.

[4] Section 8(1)(c)(ii)(aa) of PAJA is to the effect that a court in proceedings for judicial review under PAJA H may grant any order that is just and equitable, including orders setting aside the administrative action and substituting or varying it, instead of remitting the matter under s 8(1)(c)(i) for reconsideration by the original decision-maker, when exceptional circumstances justify substitution or variation. Section 172(1)(b) of the Constitution grants a court the power to make any order that is just and equitable when deciding a I constitutional matter.

[5] I will return to the specific grounds of review in due course. The crux of the applicant's case, though, is that the proceedings before both the RSDO and the RAB were attended by procedural unfairness, were further vitiated by material errors of both fact and law and that . J

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substitution is the only remedy in the light of the stance taken by both administrative bodies in the earlier proceedings and the A RAB in this review application.

[6] In terms of s 3(a) of the Act a person qualifies for refugee status if that person owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted by reason of his or her race, tribe, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group, is B outside the country of his or her nationality and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country or is unwilling to return to it. Section 4 excludes from refugee status those who commit certain criminal acts or enjoy the protection of other countries. Applications for asylum are processed first by a RSDO, an C officer of the Department of Home Affairs located at a Refugee Reception Office, with appropriate training and experience. In terms of s 21 the application must be made in person to a Refugee Reception Officer. Pending the outcome of the application the applicant is issued with an asylum seeker's permit (s 22). The application is determined by the RSDO, and where rejected it is appealable to either the Standing D Committee for Refugee Affairs or the RAB, depending on the reason for refusal.

[7] The respondents contend that the applicant does not qualify for refugee status for two reasons. Firstly, because he has failed to satisfy the statutory criteria for eligibility. And, secondly, because he is excluded from refugee status in terms of E s 4(1)(b) of the Refugees Act on account of there being reason to believe that he has committed a crime which is not of a political nature and which, if committed in South Africa, would be punishable by imprisonment. They also deny that the proceedings (or at least those before the RAB) were tainted by unfairness or were vitiated F by material errors of law or fact.

The applicant's personal history and the background to his arrival in South Africa

[8] The following facts regarding the applicant's life and the circumstances of his arrival in South Africa, taken from his G uncontradicted averments in the founding papers and the transcript of his testimony before the RAB, can be regarded as common cause.

[9] The applicant is a Libyan national who left Libya about 20 years ago, in 1987. Since then he has spent most of his time in Pakistan. As a student he was opposed to the policies and practices of H the government of Libya then (as now) under the control of Colonel Qadhafi. He became involved in political activity while a student at Bright Star University in Libya during 1983 to 1987. His activities at that time seem to have been fairly low-key and of a limited nature. His political consciousness was sparked by Libya's war against Chad, which he described as 'anti-humanity'. He spoke out against the war in the I mosque he attended and in meetings at the university. His activities extended to agitation for greater political freedoms and fair elections. After graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering he returned to his home district near Tripoli. There, together with his best friend, Khalid Hingari, he secretly J

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wrote political pamphlets agitating against the government that were distributed at night. Hingari was subsequently arrested in A 1988 and imprisoned for political conduct. He died in 1996 in Abu Salim prison during an incident documented by Amnesty International as involving the mass killing of perhaps as many as 1 200 political detainees. I will refer to this incident more fully later. B

[10] Before his involvement with Hingari, the applicant twice came to the attention of the revolutionary committee at Bright Star University, once in 1985 and once in 1987. During that time the Libyan government held 'people's assemblies' convened by revolutionary committees and aimed at achieving hegemony in respect of its socialist policies. The applicant regarded them as 'propaganda meetings that C were supposed to indicate that the government had a legitimate consensus on issues when in fact it was making authoritarian and dictatorial decisions'. He claims that he was forced to attend these meetings and to keep quiet about his political opinions because people who did not attend were tortured and a 'negative' political opinion was imputed to them. D

[11] Throughout the period of 1983 to 1987 the applicant nevertheless continued to attend student political meetings at night. His student group was a loose association, did not have a specific name, nor was it a political party. E

[12] The applicant's first brush with the revolutionary committee occurred in 1983, before he enrolled at Bright Star, after he had publicly declared his opposition to the war with Chad and the policy of compulsory military service for teenagers, during the Jumaah service (the weekly congregational gathering on Fridays at midday) at his local mosque. When questioned by the F revolutionary committee he lied in order to protect himself, giving a false account of what he in fact had said by telling them that he had simply raised questions about the war and had merely stated that the revolutionary committee should inform the people about the reasons for the war with Chad. His true opinion, then and now, was that the war was illegitimate because it was aimed exclusively at the annexation of the G Uzzo province in Chad, where large deposits of uranium had been discovered.

[13] After this encounter the applicant became more circumspect in his political activities and public pronouncements. However, he remained politically motivated and along with his fellow students listened surreptitiously on the radio to Al Jabba Al Watania Li H Inqaad Libya, an exiled political party that broadcast messages and propaganda opposed to the policies of Colonel Qadhafi. The applicant's attorney at the RAB hearing translated the Arabic name as 'the National Foundation for the Salvation of Libya'. I

[14] Despite his low profile the revolutionary committee at Bright Star briefly detained him and some of his fellow students for the purposes of interrogation. He mentioned two of his fellow students by name: Abdul Qader Shar Maddu, currently in prison in Libya for his political activities, and Salah Khuwayldi who has been granted refugee status and J

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asylum in Europe. During his interrogation he was warned not to hold political opinions opposing the government and was told that A religious dissidence would not be tolerated. Once again, during his interrogation he lied to the revolutionary committee by professing to be a supporter of the Qadhafi government.

[15] Although the evidence on the point was not elaborated upon in the founding papers, or in the testimony given before the RAB, there B is more than a suggestion that the applicant belonged to a mosque that had attracted the attention of the Libyan authorities as one preaching religious dissidence. It also emerged during the RAB hearing that the applicant's name had appeared on an internet website, referred to as C 'Libjust', established, maintained and controlled by the Libyan government for some time until it recently became defunct. The information contained on the website reflected the applicant as being a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), who had received military training in Afghanistan. The applicant denied that he was a member of the LIFG, that he had ever received military training or that D he had...