Cape Town - An application to allow American rapper and actor Yasiin Bey, better known as Mos Def, to extend his stay in South Africa indefinitely, has been postponed in the Western Cape High Court to February 17.
The hip hop artist and his family will be allowed to stay in the country until the matter is resolved.
“The family was ordered to leave in terms of our immigration regulations for overstaying its visa and this is an application to extend their stay while Yasiin Bey’s matter is dealt with,” his lawyer Shaheid Schrueder told journalists on the steps of the high court.
An interim order allowing them to stay in South Africa was granted several days ago, and that was extended on Tuesday.
Bey was arrested last month after immigration authorities discovered that he did not have a valid passport. He was subsequently released on bail of R5 000.
Schrueder said they were asking the court to allow Bey and his family “to stay together and leave together”.
He said there were seven family members, including minor children, the mother, father and grandmother.
Describing the case as “simple, yet complicated at the same time”, he said “these matters are ultimately in the jurisdiction of the court”.
Schrueder was adamant that Bey loved South Africa and had not intended to break the law. “He has never once wanted to violate, undermine or impugn the regulations of the South African government and he remains of that position.”
African News Agency
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