By Tendar Tsering
DHARAMSHALA, October 19: Calling for a judicial review of the government’s failure to give the Dalai Lama a visa earlier this month, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the president of the opposition Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) has invited the Tibetan spiritual leader to visit South Africa again.
Earlier this month, the South African government and President Zuma had come under heavy domestic and international criticism for failing to consider the Dalai Lama’s visa application on time.
Filling papers in the Western Cape High Court to demand a review of the decision, Buthelezi said his right to meet with the Dalai Lama has been unjustly violated.
The IFP and the Congress of the People (Cope) said Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma acted unlawfully by referring the visa application to the Department of International Relations and Co-operation.
“According to the law, the government has to respond with a yes or no when the applications are made,” said Mario Ambrosini, IFP MP.
“There is no alternative. There is nothing where you duck and dive and hide and run away as a guilty child would do,” said the MP.
However, the ruling African National Congress on Tuesday fired back saying that the act of the two parties taking the government to the court is “astonishing silliness” and waste of courts’ time.
“Such spurious court actions may win the two parties a few headlines in the media, but they waste courts’ time and add unnecessary workload to our already overworked courts.”
The IFP leader has invited the Dalai Lama to South Africa to attend a Human Rights Day function in March.
