Mohamed Ameen Dabhelia – 2018/03/06

The Social Development Department has welcomed the ruling by Judge Bill Prinsloo involving the repatriation process of eight Zimbabwean children who are being kept at a place of safety in Rustenburg in the North West.

This follows the dismissal of the children’s parents’ urgent application to seek an order from the High Court in Pretoria to prohibit officials from deporting the children back to the Zimbabwean capital, Harare.

The department’s spokesperson Lumka Oliphant says the ruling is a victory for all children whose decisions are made on their behalf and are not able to speak for themselves.

“The South African government has always maintained that all decisions are made in the interest of the child, this is a classic case where the South African government has come together that children regardless of their nationality are protected.”

Read: Zimbabwe Kids Kept Away From Their Parents Living In SA

The children, aged between two and 14, were found without documents in a truck in Rustenburg last November.

It’s believed they were travelling to Cape Town to visit their parents for the Christmas holidays.

Zimbabwe’s secretary in the Ministry for Labour and Social Development wrote to the social development department late last month, indicating that Zimbabwean authorities were ready to receive the children today, on the 6th of March 2018.