The Western Cape High Court has ordered the Department of Home Affairs to reconsider a German woman’s business visa application. The court found that an immigration officer in Berlin refused the application without showing the authority to do so.
Judge Phillipa Susan Van Zyl set aside the refusal of Johanna Kerstin Schinker’s application. The judge directed the Director-General of Home Affairs to reconsider it within 20 days.
Schinker is a German national who plans to open and run a guesthouse in South Africa. She applied for a business visa under section 15 of the Immigration Act.
The South African embassy in Berlin rejected her application in a notice dated 3 November 2025.
The notice listed several alleged gaps in the application. It said there was no proof that at least 60% of the staff would be South African citizens or permanent residents. It also said there was no proof of registration with the South African Revenue Service and the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission. Proof of her investment was also said to be missing.
Van Zyl found that the Immigration Act gives the Director-General the power to issue or refuse business visas. The Director-General may pass those powers to other officials. The court found that Home Affairs gave no evidence that this had been done for the officer who signed the notice.
The judge said an official could check an application against the document requirements and ask for more information. An official could not refuse a business visa without the legal authority, the judge said.
The court declared the decision invalid and set it aside.
Home Affairs argued that Schinker should first have used the department’s internal remedies. The department said she should have asked the Director-General for a review and then approached the Minister before going to court.
Van Zyl rejected that argument. The judge found that the internal review process depends on a valid decision by an authorised official. In Schinker’s case, the court found there was no valid decision that could be reviewed.
The same judgment dealt with a separate application by French national Thibaud Luciani. His application for permanent residence had been rejected.
Luciani is the son of Gautier Luciani, a South African permanent resident. He applied under section 27(g) of the Immigration Act. That section covers first-degree relatives of South African citizens or permanent residents.
The Director-General rejected his application because he did not submit a valid relative’s visa.
Van Zyl found that the refusal was materially influenced by an error of law. The judge said section 27(g) does not include the extra requirement that Home Affairs relied on. The regulations the department cited did not set such a requirement either, the judge found.
The court set aside that refusal as well. It ordered the Director-General to reconsider Luciani’s permanent residence application within 20 days.
Home Affairs and the minister were ordered to pay the costs of both applications.
Source: this article is based on reporting by IOL. Image: IOL. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.