Battle for SA citizenship drags on

File photo: Etienne Creux

File photo: Etienne Creux

Published Jan 15, 2013

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KwaZulu-Natal - It has been three years and the senior manager of communications in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, Leon Mbangwa, is still fighting a court battle for South African citizenship.

Mbangwa successfully brought an application in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in August 2009 for a temporary interdict to prevent his being arrested and deported to Zimbabwe after he had received a letter from Home Affairs saying that he did not qualify for South African citizenship and must return to the “country of his origin”.

On Monday, the matter came before the court again, but it was adjourned so that Mbangwa could respond to the latest affidavit that had been filed.

Gcwelumusa Khwela, a corruption and security expert for Home Affairs, said in the affidavit that Mbangwa had been questioned about his claim that he had been an Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) member, and he had confessed this was false.

Khwela said the issue the court had to deal with was whether Mbangwa was the biological son of the late Mabel Mbangwa, a South African woman.

Blood tests had been done on a supposed half-sibling but Home Affairs was unhappy with the results and wanted to do the tests again.

Mbangwa, however, was opposed to this.

He said he had been living in South Africa for 20 years since entering the country as an “exile” in 1989, after being trained by MK.

He maintained that his mother, Mabel, was a South African and his father, Luke Mabaso, was Zimbabwean. - The Mercury

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