An agent of Rwanda's intelligence services, who had a change of heart after being sent to South Africa to allegedly kill members of that country's opposition, should be deported.
That was the decision of four of the five Supreme Court of Appeal judges who heard an appeal by the Home Affairs Department.
It wants to deport Alex Ruta, who was arrested in December 2016 for possessing a fraudulent permit and being an illegal.
The four judges held that Ruta contravened the Refugees Act by failing to apply for asylum timeously and without delay.
Ruta arrived in South Africa in December 2014 after being instructed by his superior in Rwanda to travel to South Africa to engage with the Rwanda National Congress, an exiled opposition party with offices in South Africa.
There have been at least two attacks on RNC leaders in South Africa. Patrick Karegeya, one of the leaders, was assassinated in Johannesburg in December 2013. Another, Rwanda's ex-army chief General Kayumba Nyamwasa, was shot and wounded in 2010 in what the government described as an attack by foreign security operatives.