SA businessman in deportation fiasco back in Malawi: Dausi, Immigration chief face court rap

Blantyre-based South African businessperson Wayne Thomas James.at the heart of an immigration wrangle flew back in the country on Tuesday via Chileka Airport in Blantyre where he was welcomed by his wife and three children.

The businessman, who runs Affordable Aluminium, an aluminium frame fabrication company in Blantyre, was unceremoniously deported two weeks ago after Minister of Homeland Security Nicholas Dausi and Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services director general Masauko Medi issued a deportation order.

According to the 41-year-old James, he was abducted from his home on the evening of 11 January by eight plain-clothed men driving Immigration Department vehicles.

“They didn’t come with any documentation and I requested to see their IDs but they refused. I complied and I told them that if you want me to come with you, I have no issue but I need a copy of your ID so that I show my wife so that she knows who I’m going with, but they refused,” James said.

He added: “If it was legal immigration issues, they should have served me with papers and we would have complied. My lawyer also came in and they refused to give him any identification.”

James was then held overnight at Chilomoni Police Station where he was denied access to his wife and lawyer.

At 6 am the next morning, he was put on a plane and flown out to O.R Tambo Airport in South Africa.

According to James, he was deported for being a threat to public safety.

But he denies all the charges and claims that it is all a conspiracy.

“I am an honest businessman; I pay my taxes and I employ over 40 people. I have done nothing illegal. We have called Malawi for the past 9 years; it will be difficult to just up and leave. We consider the people that work with us as family. All we want is justice to prevail,” he told NyasaTimes.

His lawyer Kuleza Phokoso noted that he is glad that the court had served his client justice.

“We are very happy that the rule of law has prevailed. We have utmost confidence in the judiciary that it does the thing. We are a nation that abides by its laws of due laws. Every person has rights under the constitution and those right have to be protected by the courts and they have to receive treatment that is consistent with those rights.

“So, wen he was deported, and the court saw that this deportation was irregular; it had to issue an order to allow him to have his day in court so we were very happy. And when there were further attempts to block him into coming back to Malawi, we also went back to the same courts who now ordered that he be allowed to come back and also those who were in the forefront of blocking his coming back  do get the necessary sanctions and necessary procedural punishments by the courts. So, we were very happy that the rule of law has prevailed,” he said.

James and his wife, among others, own Affordable Glass and Aluminum Company in Blantyre which they sold and they are fighting with the buyers over payments.

The case is coming for full trial in March this year

. Dausi and Medi  could not immediately comment.