Taxpayers will have to pay for the Home Affairs Department's false bribery claims against an American lawyer who successfully challenged its illegal deportation of a Congolese asylum seeker, says a Cape Times report.

Acting South Gauteng High Court Judge Brian Spilg has hit Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma with a punishing legal costs order for her department's 'irresponsible', 'vexatious' and defamatory claims against the Lawyers for Human Rights volunteer. The report says the department falsely claimed the woman was in SA illegally and had solicited a bribe to ensure the extension of her immigration permit. But the judge found the allegations were fictitious and ordered that the department's accusations against the woman be struck from the court record. Spilg further ordered the department to pay for the return from Lubumbashi to SA of the asylum seeker, who was illegally deported two days before his urgent court bid to stay in the country was due to be heard.
Full Cape Times report (subscription needed)