Couple wanting to live together separated by Home Affairs delays
Sunday Tribune | 02 May 2023
Durban - A gay couple is being forced to live on different continents since the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has allegedly failed to process a permanent residence permit application submitted two years ago.
Francois Oosthuizen, a South African from Cape Town, who is married to Bowen Li from China, said he was heartbroken and frustrated by being separated from his husband and their 4-year-old son born via surrogacy on Valentine’s Day in South Africa.
He said it was difficult for him to wake up every morning knowing that his family was thousands of kilometres away.
“I try to video call them as much as I can, because it’s the closest I can get to them, since we can’t be together, but it’s not the same as being around each other.
“It’s very hard for us to accept the fact that only a few people need to sign a document that will allow us to stay together as a family, but they haven’t,” Oosthuizen said.
After being approached by the Sunday Tribune, the DHA reached out to Oosthuizen and said they were investigating. However, there was no response to the Sunday Tribune questions.
The couple met in China in 2014 where Oosthuizen worked as an English teacher. He said it was “love at first sight” and that there was an instant connection which made being around each other comfortable.
The couple was legally married in South Africa in 2017 but lived together in China until Oosthuizen returned a month ago. Oosthuizen told the Sunday Tribune that they first made an application for Li’s permanent residence permit two years ago, but there was radio silence from the DHA.
Francois Oosthuizen and Bowen Li who have been married for six years want to live in the same country, but their fate lies in the hands of the Department of Home Affairs.
“They told us that it would take about eight months, but when that time passed without anything happening, I started contacting them to get information on what was going on. “Only one person responded weeks later, telling me that our issue was not the responsibility of the department,” Oosthuizen said.
He said that his family was separated because of the department’s incompetence and lack of regard for gay rights. “It’s a combination of these two things, the fact that we are a gay couple is definitely a factor. We have had issues before with DHA.
When our son was born they wouldn’t issue us with a birth certificate. “We feel that it’s because we are gay, but we also do realise that it’s because the department is inefficient. We have heard from other people who have been waiting for a long time as well for their permanent residence permits,” he said.
Oosthuizen said the month that he had been away from his loved ones had been unbearable and that he was hopeful that they would be together soon and settle in Cape Town. “It might seem to someone else that a month is not a long time, but it’s very difficult for me. I am so used to being around and spending time with them.
It is frustrating because this is something that shouldn’t be so difficult,” he said. The couple has been receiving support from across the country for their online petition which Oosthuizen started a few days ago for the attention of Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.