Minister+hides+behind+state+security,+Zehir+Omar,+Mail+and+Guardian

Mail and Guardian, Johannesburg, COMMENT, 14 June 2006 01:59
=The minister hides behind 'state security'=


 * Zehir Omar**:

For the past seven months the home affairs ministry has persistently misled the court and the country by maintaining that Khalid Mahmood Rashid was lawfully deported to Pakistan. In sworn affidavits to the court, the ministry stuck to this claim right up to the time that the South African Air Force spilled the beans.




 * //Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula (Photograph: Nadine Hutton)//**

If the so-called deportation of Rashid had even the slightest semblance of legality, the home affairs ministry would not have taken the bizarre, tedious and unconventional route of asking a foreign government (Pakistan) to confirm a deportation effected “legally” by the South African authorities.

The simple and straightforward procedure is to furnish the flight and other relevant details regarding Rashid’s deportation from Johannesburg International airport, from where all deportations are effected in terms of a procedure that home affairs is legally and constitutionally required to observe.

The ministry has intransigently maintained that Rashid was lawfully deported and that the only reason for having withheld the information of the flight details, et cetera, was the failure of the applicant’s attorney to follow a prescribed legal procedure for the acquisition of information. This argument was dismissed by Judge Justice Poswa.

The chief immigration officer explicitly claimed that Rashid’s deportation was effected lawfully (“by the book”), yet not a single detail of “the book” had been provided until earlier this week when, after repeated denials, the home affairs minister finally admitted that Rashid was whisked away from Waterkloof military base on a private chartered plane on November 6 2005.

Despite the minister’s insistence that this was a deportation, an independent official at the Waterkloof base confirmed that Rashid was the first person in the history of this country to be deported from the Waterkloof base. Noteworthy is the fact that the Waterkloof base is not a port of entry, and all legal deportations must be done through a port of entry.

Our contention is not that Rashid did not leave South Africa. It is rather that he was abducted and sent illegally out of the country.

Why does home affairs refuse to furnish basic information? According to the department, the Rashid case was a simple issue of the “lawful deportation of an illegal immigrant”. If this is to be accepted, then why the frantic effort to cover up the issue; to deny information; to waste hundreds of thousands of rands of taxpayers’ money in legal fees; and to court the kind of publicity that has seriously damaged the image of the department?

Earlier this week, the home affairs minister revealed that the identity number of the plane is A6-PHY. Further investigation revealed that the owner of the plane is Phoenix Airways, based in the United Arab Emirates.

Who paid for the hiring of this aircraft? Which ministry? The source of funds used to hire the plane must be disclosed.

The May 19 edition of //The Star// reported the following statement of a home affairs official: “We’ll oppose this case in terms of our respected legal system, not because we have something to hide.”

The “respected legal system” as ruled by Judge Poswa, requires the minister of home affairs to furnish the details. The respected legal system requires the department to effect deportation in accordance with the immigration laws, not in the bizarre cloak-and-dagger methods described by the South African Air Force. If the ministry has nothing to hide, it should simply reveal all the details.

In the face of the dogged insistence that Rashid was lawfully deported, Captain Ronald Maseko and another officer at the Waterkloof airbase made the following disclosures:


 * The South African Air Force was requested to make the airbase available for the plane to land, and to take off with Rashid. Home affairs officials together with the police had arrived at the base from Cullinan, with Rashid handcuffed. They placed him on the chartered aircraft. The officer was told that Rashid was wanted for crimes overseas.
 * The plane was carrying South African police members and other “official-looking people”, including at least three men with British accents and several Pakistani intelligence officers.
 * The SAPS, home affairs ministry, and departments of justice and of safety and security had requested that the base be made available for a landing and take-off during the early hours.

Ever since the information regarding Rashid’s unlawful removal from the country was revealed by the defence ministry, a dilemma has faced the minister of home affairs, who has become entangled in her web of falsehood.

The contention that withholding the information we are seeking is in the interests of state security is ludicrous. Surely the air force, which is under the jurisdiction of the defence ministry, is in a better position to understand and decide what constitutes “state security” than the home affairs ministry.

The facts disclosed to date show that Rashid’s removal had nothing to do with state security. The facts suggest a conspiracy between foreign intelligence agents and South African officials of several government departments.

//Zehir Omar is attorney for the Rashid family//


 * From:** **http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=274445&area=/insight/insight__comment_and_analysis/**

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