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Today the Constitutional Court handed down its unanimous judgment in two matters which were consolidated.  For convenience the one will be referred to as the Tereza Rayment matter or application and the other the Richard Anderson matter or application.  The judgment is penned by the Chief Justice and agreed by Kollapen J, Madlanga J, Majiedt J, Makgoka AJ, Mathopo J, Potterill AJ, Rogers J and Theron J.  In both matters the applicants are adults who apply to this Court, firstly in their personal capacities and, secondly, in their representative capacities as the parents and guardians of their minor children.  In each matter the respondents are the Minister of Home Affairs, two officials of the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of Home Affairs.  One of the applicants in the Tereza Rayment matter is Mr Tapiwo Tembo.

What was common among the applicants is that they are all foreign nationals who either married to or got involved in good faith spousal relationship with a South African citizen out of which relationship or marriage either a child was born or children were born.  It is common cause that their relationships with, or, marriage to, the South African citizens subsequently came to an end or they divorced.  The applicants challenged the constitutional validity of a number of provisions of the Immigration Act.