Parliament, Saturday, 10 October 2026 – The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs welcomed, on Friday, the withdrawal of the Department of Home Affairs' directives following the Constitutional Court judgment on asylum seekers.
The committee also resolved to convene an urgent, in-person meeting to interrogate further the implementation of the Constitutional Court judgment on asylum applications.
The committee directed the department, led by the Director-General, to evaluate and provide the broader operational plan for implementing the Constitutional Court judgment.
The committee further resolved that the joint in-person meeting must include the Ministers of Home Affairs and Employment and Labour, relevant parliamentary committees, the department’s immigration branch, the Border Management Authority (BMA) and the Refugee Appeals Authority of South Africa (RAASA). The committee will also consider an oversight visit to refugee reception centres, and civil society organisations will be given an opportunity to engage the committee on the subject matter.
The committee has always maintained that South Africans come first, and their concerns are legitimate; hence, during the sixth administration, it initiated a review of migration laws, which led to the then Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, carrying out the recommendations. The Chairperson of the committee, Mr Mosa Chabane, said it is against this background that the committee associates with concerns raised, but the implementation must be within the framework of the Constitution. The committee expressed particular concern about the pace of this reform of South Africa’s citizenship, immigration and refugee legislation. “It is time that Cabinet must demonstrate urgency on their part and speed up the draft bill to allow South Africans an opportunity to contribute to determining the path the country must take. We require a proper account of the process and clear timeframes for when the draft bill will reach Parliament,” Mr Chabane said.
The committee also called for detailed information on the capacity of RAASA and refugee reception offices. This detail must include the asylum and appeals caseloads, staffing constraints and concerns raised during the meeting about asylum applicants who may be sought for prosecution in their countries of origin. It also reiterated concerns about an individual who serves both on the immigration board advising the Minister and the Scalabrini Centre.
The committee further noted that the judgment does not mean that a person automatically acquires refugee status simply by expressing an intention to seek asylum. Applicants must still go through the prescribed process to determine refugee status.
Meanwhile, earlier on Friday, it received briefings from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the Border Management Authority (BMA) on their annual reports and performance for the 2025/26 financial year. The committee commended the consistent performance and clean audit outcomes of the IEC and the improved unqualified audit outcome of the BMA, which moved from a qualified audit outcome amid severe resource constraints.
ISSUED BY PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON HOME AFFAIRS, MR MOSA CHABANE.
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact the Committee’s Media Officer:
Name: Alicestine October
Cell: 0836654345
E-mail: aoctober@parliament.gov.za
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