Lesotho: Zwelakhe Mda v Minister of Home Affairs and Others

Published: 24/Sep/2014
Source: High Court of Lesotho

Zwelakhe Mda v Minister of Home Affairs and Others (Constitutional Case No.4 of 2014) [2014] LSHC 30 (24 September 2014)

Civil Procedure – Application procedure – Dispute of fact – Urgency – Constitutional Litigation rules. 

Constitutional law – Arbitrary deprivation of citizenship status unjustified and wrongful refusal to replace expiring passport violates citizen’s constitutional right to freedom of movement, particularly not to be refused entry to or exit from one’s country – such a right would be empty without a concomitant right not to be deprived of the document which makes such movement possible – Withdrawal of citizenship – lawful only when done in compliance with law and procedure. Evidence-Admissibility and evidential weight of public documents – whether a birth certificate is a public document – whether a passport is a public document.

Download from LesothoLII: https://lesotholii.org/node/8164

Themes: Identity Documents, Birth Registration, ID Documents and Passports, Loss and Deprivation of Nationality
Regions: Lesotho
Year: 2014