ConCourt | DHA Ministry welcomes win against asylum seekers

Añadido: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]The Constitutional Court has ruled that asylum seekers whose initial applications were rejected on a final basis may not submit fresh applications.

[00:00:09]Burundian nationals Amina Irankunda and Arava Nyiragunkuru succeeded on appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal in June 2024. However, the Department of Home Affairs challenged the ruling.

[00:00:23]For more on this, we're joined by uh the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Njabulo Nzuza. Um Deputy Minister, good evening.

[00:00:30]Thank you so much for your time. Really do appreciate it. One of the arguments that Home Affairs made in court um through its lead counsel on this, Advocate uh Tshediso Ramokhale, was that the effect of the Supreme Court of Appeal judgment is that somebody can come to South Africa, apply for asylum seeker status, uh wait 5 years for that to be adjudicated because it sometimes takes inordinately long, and at the end of the 5 years, it gets rejected, and instead of going back to their country of origin, uh they uh submit a fresh application and make fresh arguments and say, "Well, in the interceding time, circumstances back home have worsened or have changed or new facts have emerged, and therefore uh I still seek asylum here and uh submit a fresh application."

[00:01:11]And that too may take another 5 years, and this cycle can go on and on and on um in in fit ad infinitum. Uh and the argument is that it it it it is not in the spirit around how the international law envisions uh asylum seeker status uh to be managed by countries. Talk to us about the effect that the Constitutional Court judgment has and how Home Affairs will go ahead forward from this moment in managing asylum seeker status applications.

[00:01:40]Yeah, no, thank you very much, Oliver, and good evening to you and all your viewers at home. This for us indeed is a very helpful and a great uh judgment that has been issued by the Constitutional Court. I always say that we had a problem of the blue sky approach where you will have people who come and apply for asylum seeker status and refugee protection consistently lodging up applications. If it's not an appeal, it's a new application. This then puts the issue to rest that once you come in, you make an application, determination is made that you do not qualify for asylum seeker and refugee status, then we have to say you back to your country and you can no longer continue with the consistent appeal. The problem with this is not just about the individuals who are appealing, but the fact that it clogs up the system for genuine asylum seekers and genuine people who need protection. Now we have to deal with people who are economic migrants in the main who come into the country on one to then abuse our laws.

[00:02:51]We are very happy with the judgment. It has come a long way. Even if you look at it, this is something of the people who came in around 2008 and 2012. The first court judgment was issued in 2018. They continued to appeal. We are now in 2026 since we are getting this judgment. But now it becomes case law, which means we can easily sum up all the other cases where such abuse are showing its head.

[00:03:17]Yeah.

[00:03:18]Of course, Home Affairs didn't come off very clean throughout this judgment.

[00:03:21]When I took a look a look at some of some some of the statements made in the judgment here, not just here, but in the Supreme Court as well as in the High Court, it seems as though there's an annoyance with how long it takes Home Affairs to process asylum seeker status applications. Why does it take so inordinately long?

[00:03:39]As I've indicated, the problem is with this blue sky approach where a person has endless number of opportunities to appeals and so on. It clogs up the system. If If look in terms of the graph that we always show about the number of asylum seekers that have come into the country. When we had a global meltdown, there was a huge spike of economic migrants who then apply themselves as if they are seeking protection in South Africa, which then means that you do not have necessary resources to accommodate all those appeals. Even if when we have adjudicated on them and set the record straight, still people will then try and find other ways like they were doing in this case, which means to lodge in new application. Imagine that new application that we have to deal with whilst we are receiving other applications. That's what clogs up the system. But to deal with that issue once and for all, you know that we have developed the white paper that was approved by cabinet. That white paper deals with this problem now decisively, so that we don't have people who come into the country masquerading as seeking protection whereas they are economic migrants. The digital platform that we're going to be building as well will help us deal with this issue moving forward. And just lastly, how many people do you process, does Home Affairs process annually for asylum seeker status applications? And how many people currently, will this judgment have an effect on? Particularly those who have resubmitted applications who are awaiting adjudications on appeals?

[00:05:10]Well, I do not have the accurate figures with me, but I can tell you that it will go quite a long way in helping us curtail these unnecessary appeals that have been happening with us as such clogging up the system. Also, what I would think it helps us the most with is that we have now have case law with us that will help us deal with all the other matters that has came in. And what is important is that we have the white paper that we are developing that is dealing with these issues, and we hope that it is now starting to show that government is acting as in this acting in the interest of safeguarding the sovereign integrity of South Africa by making sure that our laws are not abused. Honorable Minister, thank you so much for that. Really do appreciate it.

[00:05:59]Jab u Lonzuza, the Minister Deputy Minister of Home Affairs.