Finally, the protracted legal battle that left the Zimbabwean school teacher Zwelani Ncube without an income, and his pupils without English instruction has come to an end.

On 21 October 2009 the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) dismissed a petition brought by the Department of Home Affairs to appeal against the December 2008 judgment which granted Mr Ncube a work permit to teach English in South Africa and to pay him compensation for the cost of the delay. The SCA dismissed the application for leave to appeal with costs. This application to the SCA followed the June 2009 refusal by the Eastern Cape High Court in Grahamstown to grant the Department of Home Affairs an appeal against the same ruling. The court said that the applicants had no prospect of success.

The December judgment had ordered the director general of Home Affairs to issue a work permit to Mr Ncube and for the Minister of Home Affairs to pay Mr Ncube R16 000 for loss of salary and transport costs to the Home Affairs offices in Queenstown incurred over eight months.

The matter began after Mr Ncube, previously earning R150 in Bulawayo, was offered a job teaching English at Molteno High School in the Eastern Cape in November 2007. However, he could not take up his post as government red tape made it impossible for him to obtain a work permit. Eight months after he was supposed to start teaching, his application had still not been processed, and when Home Affairs officials finally got around to it, it was denied on ‘spurious grounds'.

With the assistance of the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), Mr Ncube appealed against this decision. He launched an application in the High Court, seeking to either force Home Affairs to grant him the work permit or compel the Minister to decide on his appeal before the end of November 2008. He also sought an order that he be compensated for his loss of earnings and incidental expenses in travelling from Molteno to Queenstown Home Affairs office.

The recent ruling guarantees Mr Ncube's work permit and grants him a small amount of compensation. The judgment is an important precedent for similar cases of refugees seeking employment in South Africa, as refugees often struggle to access documentation that will enable self reliance, or access to socio economic services.