The Tribunal is not satisfied that there are serious reasons for considering that the appellant “has committed a serious non-political crime outside [New Zealand] prior to his admission to [New Zealand] as a refugee” because any crime he committed was of a political kind.
[125] Accordingly, the appellant is not excluded from the protection of the Refugee Convention under Article 1F(b) of that Convention.
At issue are the reach of the Refugees Act and of the Immigration Act as well as the interplay between these two statutes; the effect of delay on entitlement to apply for refugee status; the operation of the exclusionary provisions of the Refugees Act, particularly section 4(1)(b); and whether this section applies only to crimes committed outside South Africa. Also at issue is the fidelity of the Supreme Court of Appeal to its own judgments and whether in this case commitment to precedent (stare decisis) was breached.
