The Democratic Alliance is shocked by reports that the Department of Home Affairs deported Mr Edwin Samotse from Polokwane Prison to Botswana, where he may face the death penalty.
   

   
This is despite a non-surrender order, signed by the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, and a Constitutional Court ruling which stated that “the deportation, extradition or any form of removal” of people who could face the death penalty once deported “is wholly unacceptable”, given that such a sentence is unconstitutional in South Africa.
   

   
The South African government must take every action to have Mr Samotse returned to South Africa.
   

   
I will be writing to the Ministers of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, and Justice and Correctional Services, Michael Masutha, to request an urgent explanation of how such an error occurred, and to determine what can be done to have Mr Samotse returned to South Africa.
   

   
This administrative bungle has put a man’s life on the line and cannot go unchallenged.
 

 
It is in breach of our Constitution and our laws. Our Constitution binds us to the protection of human life in every context.
   

   
I call on Ministers Gigaba and Masutha to do everything they can to have Mr Samotse returned to South Africa.

Issued by the DA