The Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on immigration has blamed misinformation and misinterpretation for the chaos that erupted at Home Affairs offices across the country on Tuesday following a Constitutional Court judgment on asylum seekers, insisting the ruling does not open South Africa’s borders or grant automatic residency.
On Tuesday, videos of long queues and overcrowding, particularly at the Durban refugee reception centre, triggered public panic that the country’s asylum system had been flung open.
The IMC on Wednesday moved to calm fears, saying directives issued after the judgment were misunderstood.
Minister of Justice Mmamoloko Kubayi said the fallout was not caused by the judgment itself, but by how it was interpreted and implemented.
“Following the judgement Home Affairs issued directives to the refugee centers across the country,” Kubayi said.
“It is our analysis that these directives together with the Constitutional Court judgement had unintended misunderstandings and operational difficulties.”
“The ConCourt judgement does not grant refugee status or permanent residents automatically to anyone who enters SA nor does it legalize unlawful migration.”
Kubayi was adamant that South Africans would not be pushed out of Home Affairs offices by a flood of foreign nationals, as claimed on social media.
“It is not true that Home Affairs offices will not be able to service South Africans because they are flooded with foreign nationals,” she said.
The Constitutional Court ruled that asylum seekers cannot be barred, detained, or deported due to procedural or technical immigration errors, including irregular entry or missed reporting deadlines.
In effect, it orders refugee officers to assist all applicants regardless of their legal status, effectively reopening the asylum system and removing technical grounds for exclusion.
The ruling sparked visual chaos and an influx at Home Affairs offices, fuelling claims of an unmanaged surge in undocumented applications.
The IMC is now scrambling to find a constitutional but sustainable way to implement it.
“We have consulted with our legal teams to help us consolidate all court judgements on immigration,” Kubayi said.
“The legal teams will do analysis of the implications and implementation of the requirements. The legal team will also provide us with various options available to the state including looking at available precedents how the state found itself in this difficult situation where we need time and resources to be able to comply with the court judgement.”
Kubayi said government will ask the President and the court for more time to comply.
“We are approaching the president so that we can get an extension on this matter…there is a lot that has been done. We are calling for collaboration and cooperation from all the departments concerned,” she said.
Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni struck a harder tone, warning foreign nationals against trying to abuse the judgment while also defending the state’s right to control its borders.
“If you are going to defraud the system the law will deal with you and we are going to deport you,” Ntshavheni said.
“We hold the view that illegal immigration is wrong.”
Ntshavheni said Cabinet has been asked for a budget to rebuild South Africa’s porous border, a long-standing demand from the Department of Home Affairs and border communities.
“We have now asked Cabinet for a budget so we can rebuild the border,” she said.
The IMC confirmed it has already filed papers and the court will sit on 29 October to hear the state’s approach.
“We have submitted papers and court will be sitting on the 29 October,” Ntshavheni said.