“You Are Prioritising Foreigners Over Us” Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma Slams Home Affairs Directive

March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma has strongly condemned a new Home Affairs directive that forces refugee offices to accept asylum applications from people who entered South Africa illegally. She described the move, which follows a Constitutional Court ruling, as a shock that ignores the country’s immigration laws and leaves undocumented South Africans without help.

The directive, issued at the end of September, tells every refugee reception office to take in any person who arrives and says they want to apply for asylum. Officials may no longer turn applicants away because they crossed the border unlawfully, arrived without a visa, or failed to report within five days. The instruction also stops offices from demanding extra travel permits or proof of “good cause” before an application can start. Home Affairs must then issue an asylum seeker visa while the claim is processed.

Ngobese-Zuma said the order gives foreign nationals free rein to enter the country and claim refugee status without regard for the strain on public services. In a video message she pointed out that many South Africans still lack basic identity documents and cannot open bank accounts, claim grants or collect matric certificates. She reported that her organisation received more than seven thousand emails in a single day from local people who have never been documented and urgently need Home Affairs assistance.

She argued that the Constitutional Court judgment behind the directive has effectively set aside key parts of the immigration framework. The court ruled in July that certain sections of the Refugees Act were unconstitutional because they blocked people from having their asylum claims assessed on the merits simply because of how they entered the country. Ngobese-Zuma said the judges failed to weigh the limited resources available and the needs of citizens who have waited years for documents.

Critics of the change worry that the system will now be flooded with applications that Home Affairs is already struggling to handle. Supporters of the ruling say the law must still protect people who face genuine danger if they are sent home, and that procedural mistakes should not automatically end a claim. Ngobese-Zuma maintained that South Africans’ voices were ignored in the court process and questioned whether the current approach still serves the public interest. She called on authorities to prioritise citizens who remain undocumented before expanding access for those who arrived outside the legal channels.

Source: https://x.com/MDNnewss/status/2107458391039676824

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