No Foreigners Allowed: Marchers Storm Home Affairs With Demands To Block All Asylum Seekers

Members of the March and March movement have officially handed over a detailed memorandum of grievances to representatives from the Department of Home Affairs in Tshwane. The action forms part of a series of nationwide demonstrations organized by the civic group to challenge government policies surrounding immigration management, border control, and national security frameworks across South Africa.

Crowds gathered outside the central offices of the department in the capital city, holding placards and chanting slogans aimed at pressuring executive leadership to halt its scheduled rollout of a digital portal for asylum seeker registrations. Movement organizers contend that shifting registration processes away from physical offices to an online system will introduce significant security vulnerabilities, reduce rigorous background vetting, and complicate law enforcement oversight.

The movement’s leadership argues that digital processing makes it far easier for fraudulent applicants to bypass physical verification standards, enter administrative databases without comprehensive biometric checks, and obtain legal status without proper documentation checks. According to March and March spokespersons, weakening intake standards will directly contribute to unchecked population growth in urban centers, placing severe, unsustainable strain on municipal infrastructure, public healthcare facilities, local schools, and social safety nets.

The Department of Home Affairs previously outlined plans to launch the digital booking and application framework to modernise operations, eliminate massive physical backlogs at regional Refugee Reception Offices, and curb corruption surrounding manual queue systems. Government officials maintain that online scheduling improves tracking, ensures orderly appointments, and upholds constitutional mandates regarding human rights and refugee protection.

However, the March and March memorandum demands the immediate scrapping of the online platform in favor of physical processing, strengthened border patrols, and aggressive enforcement of current statutory migration laws. Movement leaders insist that national security and the protection of South African citizens’ access to jobs and social services must take precedence over administrative convenience.

A strong contingent of law enforcement officers from the South African Police Service and Tshwane Metro Police monitored the demonstration to ensure public safety and maintain orderly conditions around public roads and government property. Department of Home Affairs representatives formally received and signed the memorandum, committing to forward the petition to senior executive management for further review and response. Movement organizers concluded the demonstration by warning that further public mobilizations and legal challenges will follow across multiple provinces if the department fails to address their security and administrative concerns directly.

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