Dalai Lama comes back to haunt Zuma

18 October 2011 - 02:16 By ANNA MAJAVU
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The Dalai Lama is to apply for a South African visa for the third time in two years - IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has invited him to attend a prayer meeting on Human Rights Day next year.

The fresh application will be yet another headache for President Jacob Zuma, who was accused of ducking the issue as controversy swirled around the government's stonewalling of the Tibetan spiritual leader's visa bid earlier this month.

In his invitation, Buthelezi wrote to the Dalai Lama: "Twice I have planned and hoped to meet you to pray together, receive your spiritual guidance, and discuss the state of the world and its politics."

Buthelezi and COPE president Mosiuoa Lekota yesterday said the Dalai Lama had indicated that he would accept the invitation.

Also yesterday, the IFP and COPE served the government with court papers in which they accused it of breaching the constitution by ignoring the Dalai Lama's recent visa application.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu lashed out at Zuma's government 10 days ago, calling it a "disgrace".

"You don't represent me. You represent your own interests and I am warning you, I am really warning you, out of love, I am warning you like I warned the Nationalists, one day we will start praying for the defeat of the ANC government," he said.

This was after the departments of home affairs and of international relations and cooperation, as well as the Presidency, passed the buck among themselvesuntil the Dalai Lama was forced to call off his trip, missing Tutu's 80th birthday celebrations.

This was the second time the government had snubbed a visa application by the Dalai Lama, reinforcing the impression that Zuma was kowtowing to China - South Africa's biggest trading partner - and sparking protests countrywide.

The urgent application to the Western Cape High Court by Buthelezi and Lekota, lodged yesterday, argues that Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma acted unlawfully by passing the visa application on to International Relations and Cooperation, which had "no powers under the act to make any determination on the granting of a visa".

Immigration lawyer Gary Eisenberg said at a COPE and IFP press conference at parliament yesterday: "This case is all about the Bill of Rights and [the government's] flagrant violation [of it] ."

IFP MP Mario Oriani-Ambrosini said the Immigration Act did not allow the minister of home affairs to "duck, dive and run away like a guilty, scolded child".

The court application will be heard on November 22. If it is successful, it could pave the way for the Tibetan spiritual leader to obtain a visa for the event on Human Rights Day on March 21.

Government spokesmen were caught off guard by the court application.

Presidency spokesmen Mac Maharaj and Harold Maloka insisted that only the Department of International Relations and Cooperation could speak on the Dalai Lama's visa applications.

When told that COPE and the IFP were arguing that the department had no legal right to grant or withhold visas, Maloka would only say the matter had been handled by that department all along.

Home Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa refused to comment, saying that Dlamini-Zuma had not been served with the legal papers.

"We will respond once the papers have been served," he said.

International Relations and Cooperation spokesman Clayson Monyela would only say: "We'll respond to the court case in court".

Oriani-Ambrosini said the Dalai Lama's staff were told openly by the South African High Commission in India that the visa decision was political and that he should get "his people" in South Africa to put pressure on the authorities.

"The Dalai Lama approached the government as early as April for a visa but was told he was too early and should come back at a later time. He did so at exactly the time he was told to apply. The government's conduct led to the effective denial of an entry visa to the Dalai Lama," Oriani-Ambrosini said.

He said that. when he worked in the department, visas were regularly processed for "VIPs" within 20 minutes.

Home Affairs and International Relations "appeared unable or, more likely, unwilling to come to a decision. This is a clear and blatant case of a public officer unreasonably failing to take a decision," the applicants say in their court papers.

A supporting affidavit by Sonam Tenzing, the Dalai Lama's South African representative, says the South African High Commissioner to India, Sehloho Moloi, repeatedly told the Dalai Lama's staff that he, Moloi, needed "clearance" from Pretoria before the visa could be processed.

At one point, the high commission returned the Dalai Lama's visa application, instructing his staff to apply through VFA, a private global visa-application company.

The government has until Monday to say whether it will oppose the application.

Cosatu could not be reached for comment yesterday. But it is unlikely that it will support the IFP and COPE's court case.

Nomfundo Walaza, CEO of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre, and Dumisa Ntsebeza, the centre's chairman, were unavailable for comment.

Tenzing confirmed that Buthelezi had invited the Dalai Lama but would not comment on the court case.

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