March & March Take To Durban Streets As Home Affairs Officially Launches Online Asylum Registration

March and March members are marching in Durban as the Department of Home Affairs launches an online system for people seeking asylum to register their intention to apply.

The system, scheduled for introduction by 10 November, is intended to let applicants submit an initial registration online before receiving a reference number and an appointment at a Refugee Reception Office. The government has said the registration receipt will record a person’s intention to seek asylum, but will not be an asylum-seeker visa or confirmation of refugee status.

The launch follows a Constitutional Court judgment handed down on 7 July concerning the processing of asylum applications. In October, the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration said the new registration and appointment process would be introduced in phases. It said the receipt would provide evidence that a person had declared an intention to seek asylum while their application was pending.

March and March has opposed the planned system. The movement’s leader, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, previously called for a Durban shutdown on 10 November if the government proceeded with the online registration plan. In a report published in October, she argued that an online system should also assist South Africans who lack identity documents.

The demonstration comes amid public debate over how South Africa should manage asylum applications, immigration enforcement and the legal protections available to people seeking refuge. The government has said that the registration receipt is not a visa, while also stating that people holding valid receipts must not be removed or detained solely because they are in the country without a visa, pending the lodging and final determination of their asylum applications.

The process is intended to register applicants’ details and arrange an appointment at a Refugee Reception Office. A receipt is not the same as a completed asylum application or a decision on refugee status. The distinction is significant: the online step records an intention to apply, while the formal application and its assessment remain part of the wider asylum process.

The march in Durban places the system’s rollout under renewed public scrutiny on its launch day. Further details about the size, route and duration of the current demonstration were not available in the information provided.

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