{jcomments on}2009-19-01 – Namibian.com.na BY: STAFF REPORTER
THE High Court has instructed Home Affairs Minister Rosalia Nghidinwa to decide on a citizenship application submitted by a Burundian national married to a Namibian woman.
Nghidinwa was given 30 days to decide whether to grant the application by Jean-Bosco Nzitunga and to give reasons if the citizenship application was unsuccessful.
Nzitunga and his wife Ritha Manasse brought a High Court application against Nghidinwa after the Ministry failed to consider his citizenship request for close to four years or even informed him about the status of the application.
Nzitunga came to Namibia as a young man in 1995 after fleeing the civil war in Burundi. He completed his high school in Namibia in 1997 and enrolled at the University of Namibia to study for a degree in accounting, which he completed in 2001.
After that he enrolled for a Masters in Business Administration, which he completed in 2003.
The same year in August he got married to Manasse and they have a small child.
Nzitunga he applied for citizenship in March 2006 based on his marriage to a Namibian.
After being sent from one person to another in the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration, and without being informed of the outcome of his citizenship application, he instituted a lawsuit to force the Minister to consider his application for Namibian citizenship.
His lawyer, Norman Tjombe of the Legal Assistance Centre, argued that not making a decision on Nzitunga’s citizenship application for all those years was a violation of his and the family’s human rights to fair and reasonable administrative justice, rights to a family and his wife and Namibian child’s rights to freedom of movement and to reside in the country.
The Minister initially opposed the application, but withdrew her opposition a few days before it was due to be heard by the High Court.
Yesterday the High Court heard the application and granted an order compelling the Minister to decide on the citizenship application within the next 30 days.
Should that be unsuccessful, the Minister must give reasons why the citizenship application was unsuccessful.
Tjombe said there were several pending applications against the Minister of Home Affairs where the citizenship applications had been delayed for many years.
“The delays at the Ministry of Home Affairs are systematic, and have a serious impact on ordinary people who need to know what to do with their lives,” the LAC said in a statement.
In a separate but similar matter, the LAC said a South African citizen married to a Namibian was threatened with deportation because he was not in possession of a domicile certificate.
The LAC took the matter to the High Court on December 23, with an application to obtain an interdict against the Minister of Home Affairs which prevents her from removing, in any manner, the South African from Namibia.
The LAC argued that deportation of the South African national would also violate his and his wife’s rights to a family, and his wife’s rights to live in Namibia.
The matter will now be fully heard by the High Court later this year.
“Due to the contradictory and sometimes blatantly wrong legal information from officials at the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration, several applications have now been filed in the High Court for the court to determine the residence status of foreign nationals in Namibia who are married to Namibians,” Tjombe said.
