Pretoria - American hip hop star Dante Terrell Smith, also known as Mos Def or Yasiin Bey, faces serious charges relating to breaching South Africa's immigration laws, home affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni said on Wednesday.
“In terms of the seriousness of the charges, they are. If they were not (serious) we wouldn't have arrested him,” Apleni told reporters in Pretoria.
“You can't break the laws of another country. Whether you are a citizen in our country, you are not allowed to break the law. We deal with you on that basis.” Apleni said
Smith, who is out on bail, will appear for trial on March 8 to answer to the charges.
“His family has received an order to leave the Republic by January 2016,” said Apleni.
Smith was arrested after he attempted to leave the country from Cape Town International Airport on January 9. He was in the company of his spouse and a minor.
Smith, along with his wife and children, have been living in South Africa for nearly two years. The spouse and minor he was travelling with had US passports.
“The major problem why he could not get into the Ethiopian flight was the document he produced at the immigration counter, the World Passport, which South Africa does not recognise. Immigration officers also detected that his spouse and minor child had overstayed their visit to the Republic,” said Apleni.
Apleni said the visitors' visa of Smith's spouse and child had expired in April 2014. “Mr Smith himself has been a frequent visitor to South Africa since 2013.
His first visit to South Africa was on June 2, 2013.
He has entered South Africa ten times, and has entered the country on a visitor's visa (90 days exemption) using a US passport, not a World Passport,” said Apleni.
African News Agency
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