Dear Minister Schreiber,
My name is Cédric Waldburger. I am a Swiss entrepreneur, and together with my wife Elena and our two young daughters, Lana and Mira, I have spent the past months building a life in South Africa, a country we have come to love and hope to call home.
I am writing to you openly, and with humility, because I made a mistake.
We applied, properly and in good faith, for the visas that would let us settle here. While our applications sat in the Department's processing backlog, I misread a message about our paperwork and travelled out of the country when I should not have. At the airport I showed the receipt for our pending application, honestly believing it allowed me to leave. It did not. That was my error, and I take full responsibility for it.
For a 37-day overstay, I was declared an "undesirable person" and banned from South Africa for five years, and put on a flight that same day. I am the only one of us affected: my wife and our two young daughters remain in South Africa, their status in good order. We are in the middle of IVF treatment here, hoping to grow our family, and I now find myself shut out of the country where my wife and children are, and where we hoped to build our future. Today we are a family divided across continents because of a misunderstanding.
I am not writing to argue that anyone was wrong. I am writing to ask for compassion, and to offer something constructive in return.
Minister, I have followed your work to modernise Home Affairs: the move to digital, the clearing of historic backlogs, the resolve to treat genuine applicants fairly. I believe in that mission. Ours is, I think, exactly the kind of case it exists to prevent. A family who did everything by the book, tripped up by a notification that was not clear enough for people who do not know the law, and met with a penalty far heavier than the error.
If our story can help in any way, whether through clearer wording on those notices or a moment of guidance for families navigating the system, I offer it gladly, and I will help however I can.
But first, I would simply like to come home to my wife and daughters. I am pursuing the proper channels, with respect for the process and the law. I ask only that our case be looked at with humanity.
With sincere respect, and gratitude for your time,