The Department of Home Affairs is usually rejecting visa cases on a regular basis without giving any reason for it. The South African Court handed down an interesting judgement last week, which will help to better cooperation between home affairs and Immigration Consulting Agencies, as well as applicants in general.
Before the new judgement, there was no need for explanation regards to rejections of visa cases, but due to the new law if there is no reasonable cause for rejection, you are able to take them directly to court without going through the whole procedure in terms of the immigration act.
The Law change summarized below:
Stated reasons for rejection must be intelligible and informative and provide an explanation for why the decision-maker arrived at the decision. The explanation must be given in a way that will allow the applicant to determine whether the decision was based on an incorrect factual premise or an error of law.
Merely setting out the conclusion to which the decision-maker came is not sufficient. The decision-maker must set out his understanding of the relevant law, the findings of fact on which his conclusions are based and the reasoning process which led to them, in clear and unambiguous language.
Where the decision-maker does not furnish any reasons at all, or the reasons furnished are not adequate within the meaning set out above, the decision is not one ‘contemplated’ in terms of the Act and is consequently not a decision in respect of which the affected person is obliged to exercise his/her internal remedies of review or appeal before proceeding to Court for review in terms of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3.
Essentially, if DHA does not give proper reasons in a rejection, you can take them to court directly without having to go through the appeal procedure in terms of sections and of the Immigration Act.
Source: http://www1.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAWCHC/2019/138media.pdf