Pretoria - A judge was outraged by the conduct of the director-general of Home Affairs, who for years simply turned a blind eye towards an elderly German couple’s desperate plight to retire in South Africa.
The couple fully qualify in terms of the law to obtain permanent residency here, yet their application was turned down by the department.
Western Cape High Court Judge Vincent Saldanha said he considered holding the official personally liable for the legal costs.
He commented that the court noted the egregious conduct of the official for the manner in which he had conducted this litigation and in handling the couple’s application. Jakob Maier, 80 and his wife Maria, 78, dearly want to retire in Cape Town, where they bought a house about 11 years ago.
They applied for permanent residence, but were simply told they didn’t qualify. This in spite of the Immigration Act stating that a person who wants to retire in South Africa must have a minimum of R37 000 a month in their account.
The Maiers, together with their application for permanent residency, made a full disclosure of their assets â€` both here and abroad â€` which were verified by the banks where they hold accounts, as well as the businesses in which they had ownership in. This revealed that they were very wealthy.
They also planned to retire in their multimillion-rand home that they bought in Cape Town.
They applied for permanent residence in 2016, but only heard from the department four years later that their application was rejected.
The reason given was “that they failed to provide adequate proof” they would have the prescribed R37  000 a month in their account.
The surprised Maiers tried to engage with Home Affairs, to no avail. They told the court that they still had no idea why their application was rejected.
They turned to court in desperation; they had for years lived in their Cape Town home on visiting visas. This meant they had to leave the country every three months to have the documents renewed.
They said they were living in a state of uncertainty, not knowing when their visas would not be renewed again. As elderly people, this was taking a toll on them, they

said.
They asked the court to grant them permanent residency and not to remit the matter back to department to avoid being in the same position as before.
In opposition to the application, director-general Livhuwani Makhode issued an affidavit stating that “their preferred retirement is driven by nothing but sentiment”.
The department said the application was rejected for numerous reasons, including that the couple did not submit a list of their debts. In spite of this affidavit, the department didn’t want to continue fighting the matter in court.
The judge said it was no surprise that the department had thrown in the towel on the eve that the matter was due to be heard in court.
The department proposed a settlement, which would allow it 60 days to verify the assets of the Maiers.
The judge concluded that there was no need for this time consuming exercise, which the department had years to do if they wanted to. He said all records regarding the couple’s finances were above board and thus there was no need to verify it.
Regarding the conduct of the director-general, Judge Saldanha said: “He has displayed a complete disdain for the applicants in the way he has treated them…”
The judge ordered the department to foot the entire legal bill.
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