Cape Town club gets permits for dancers
2010-12-15 07:43
Cape Town - A Western Cape High Court judge has ordered the department of home affairs to issue work permits for exotic dancers at a Cape Town nightclub.
Judge Bennie Griesel said on Tuesday that the order would hold pending the outcome of the club's appeal to the minister of home affairs.
The Arabesque club, in Burg Street, made an urgent application last week for the issue of a temporary "corporate permit" to replace the one seized in a home affairs raid earlier this year.
Its dancers are mainly of East European origin, including Russians and Ukrainians.
The department claimed the permit was irregularly issued by a former department official, in disregard of departmental policy, and also claimed that some of the dancers were involved in prostitution.
Griesel said that until the permit was set aside by a court, it "exists in fact and it has legal consequences that cannot simply be overlooked".
He also said that even if the department had good reason for withdrawing the permit, it could not do so without notice.
"Everyone is entitled to administrative action that is 'lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair'," he said.
"I wish to emphasise that this should not be seen as a finding by the court that the applicant is in fact entitled to a permit; only that the applicant has established that its existing permit had been irregularly withdrawn."
He ordered the department to issue a corporate permit on the same terms as the original one, and 70 "corporate worker authorisation certificates" for the dancers.
A corporate permit is usually used to allow companies to bring groups of workers with scarce skills into South Africa.
- SAPA
