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"This case is fundamental to ensure that people are not returned to persecution, torture, violence or war,' said James Chapman, head of advocacy at the Scalabrini Centre. The Western Cape High Court has reserved judgment on a constitutional challenge by the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town - an immigrant organisation - and Lawyers for Human Rights to amendments to the Refugees Act that are used by Home Affairs officials to arrest and deport asylum seekers. The court also extended an interdict that prohibits the department from deporting any foreign national in SA if the foreign national has indicated an intention to apply for asylum. The amendments to the Refugees Act that the court was asked to consider that persons who have "committed an offence in relation to the fraudulent possession, acquisition or presentation of a South African identity card, passport, travel document, temporary residence visa or permanent residence permit" can be excluded from applying for asylum. The amendments also exclude those who entered South Africa other than through a designated port of entry and failed to satisfy a refugee status determination officer that there were compelling reasons for such entry; and those who fail to report to the Refugee Reception Office within five days of entry into SA, even if they have a legal visa. "This [case] refers specifically to asylum seekers not entering the country through a designated port of entry and those who have not obtained a transit visa," said James Chapman, head of advocacy at the Scalabrini Centre. "This case is fundamental to ensure that people are not returned to persecution, torture, violence or war." According to papers before court supporting Scalabrini's case, the practice of arresting and deporting asylum seekers without transit permits "undermines the fundamental principles of both domestic and international human rights and refugee law". From November 2023, new asylum seekers without a transit visa were arrested, detained and deported without an opportunity to undergo a refugee status determination interview. They are arrested after a preliminary interview by immigration officials who assess whether they have a good cause for failing to enter SA through a designated port of entry and obtain an asylum transit visa at the border. "Most applicants are found lacking good cause, resulting in their arrest for deportation. This process effectively denies individuals access to the asylum system, leaving them vulnerable to prolonged periods of detention and then deportation to their home countries, where they face persecution, violence, war, detention or even death. This is in direct violation of the principle of non-refoulement, the cornerstone of refugee protection," said Chapman. In 2023, the former minister of home affairs Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said that 91 transit visas had been issued in two years, during which time there were close to 10,000 applications for asylum. Non-refoulement is a legal principle prohibiting states from transferring or removing individuals from their jurisdiction or effective control when there are substantial grounds for believing that the person would be at risk of irreparable harm upon return to their home country, including persecution and torture. In February, Amnesty International, the Global Strategic Litigation Council for Refugee Rights, the International Detention Coalition and the Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) joined the case. In papers before court, the HSF's executive director, Naseema Fakir, argued that the law negatively affected the children of asylum seekers as they would either be returned to high-risk situations or be left behind when their parents were deported, leaving them stateless. The director-general of the Department of Home Affairs, Livhuwani Makhode, stated in papers before court that the application was misguided. He said the applicants cannot "simply ignore the Immigration Act". This Act states that a person who has an expired visa is an illegal foreigner and can be deported. This also applies to a person with no visa because they did not enter the country through an official port of entry. However, Chapman pointed out in his affidavit that ever since a provisional interdict was granted to stop the deportation of asylum seekers without valid transit visas, the system had been paralysed. He said the interdict did not require the department to accept new applications, so they just stopped doing so. "Asylum seekers are suffering great prejudice," he said. |
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Another aid superpower has fallen, taking with it all the indirect benefits South Africa accrued from do-good spending in its neighbourhood,. Until last Tuesday, the United Kingdom considered itself as an aid superpower. You could quibble about whether the numbers justified such a grand description, but the sentiment was sincere. During the toughest days following the 2008 financial crisis, a hard-nosed Conservative UK government resolutely held the foreign aid budget at 0.7% of national income, and it seemed genuinely embarrassed to cut that to 0.5% after a global pandemic demanded a torrent of money while shutting down big parts of the economy. Then, last week, the left-leaning administration slashed that 0.3%, which looks very much like a stretch target unlikely to be met as trade wars loom. But it is actually much worse than that. When the UK says "foreign aid", it includes spending on refugees, including domestically, on things such as hotel accommodation for people who reach Britain via small boats. Unless the government stops the flow of undocumented migrants (which it appears unable to do), the actual amount of money the UK will spend on feeding the hungry and healing the sick in places like southern Africa will be negligible. In rands-and-cents terms, the scale of the UK retreat from foreign aid is dwarfed by America's wholesale shutdown of do-good money, but perhaps more telling. Foreign aid was closer to the heart in the UK, perhaps still rooted in post-colonial guilt, and the decision to drop it was a more calculated and less populist one. Like the UK, the European Union must also finance a massive rearming in the face of a Russian threat no longer countered by assurance of American support, and that money has to come from somewhere. But the EU was already headed towards a policy of more mercenary foreign aid, quid-pro-quo rather than handout, and that trend will only accelerate. A glance at the G7 roster will tell you that Canada and Japan are left as the rich countries that can step in to save lives in poor countries. Even with the best will in the world – which they do not have – they could not fill the gap. There is still money in the pipes, but the taps have been turned off, and the era of foreign aid is over. Aid massively benefitted SA South Africa was never an aid-dependent country, and it will not feel the direct impact of the end of aid as acutely as many other countries will. People will die because there is less money for HIV prevention, but not as many will die in countries where the problem is acute hunger. NGOs and their suppliers will shut down, but not as many as in countries that act as aid hubs, where aid is a big sector of the economy. Though it was not a big aid recipient, the indirect benefit South Africa accrued from foreign aid to countries around it has been incalculable. Despite the claims by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, a lot of aid-funded projects have done a vast amount of good all over southern Africa. They have reduced the burden of disease, and so reduced demand on South Africa's health system. They have spurred primary production, which helped feed South African industry, and economic growth, which created markets for South African goods. They have deepened democracy and combated extremism, bringing to South Africa all the benefits of greater and more sustainable security in its neighbourhood. And nobody is coming to the rescue. Multilateral organisations mostly depended on the US and Europe to fund their aid projects. Multinational companies are increasingly disinterested in philanthropy. Russia and China have always been transactional and will continue to offer security in return for minerals and infrastructure in return for indentured servitude, respectively. Other players with money and resources that have long been isolationist or mercenary, such as the Gulf States, aren't going to change their ways in this environment. There is a fantasy among conservatives – especially in rich countries – that if you yank away aid and just trade on fair terms, then poor countries will somehow do better. Perhaps that, or a similar miracle, will happen. Realistically, though, South Africa needs to prepare for its neighbourhood to become poorer, sicker, and less stable in coming years, and decide what to do about that right about now. |
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Shortly after taking office in January, US President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid. - and asylum seekers in South Africa have received notices from the United States terminating their funding. - This comes after US President Donald Trump initially ordered a 90-day pause in foreign aid in January. - A human rights lawyer has said the cessation of this sort of funding will have a devastating impact. Just weeks after the United States invited Afrikaners to become refugees, the US Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration has cut off funding to civil society organisations providing services to refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa. Shortly after taking office in January, US President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid. A month later, and despite pending litigation, the Trump administration has started terminating most US foreign aid contracts and grants, Reuters reported. Organisations in South Africa that provide services to assist refugees and asylum seekers who migrated to the southern tip of Africa have not been spared. Refugee Social Services (RSS) and Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town confirmed to News24 that they received letters on Wednesday notifying them that funding from the US Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration had been terminated. "This award is being terminated for the convenience of the US government, pursuant to a directive from US Secretary of State Mario Rubio, for aligning with agenda priorities and national interest," the letter read. "The decision to terminate this individual award is a policy determination vested in the secretary of state." The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told News24 that it was aware of reports that some organisations in South Africa had received notifications regarding the cessation of US funding. The UNHCR, which has also been impacted by the 90-day pause in US funding, said its biggest concern was the well-being and safety of the millions of refugees and forcibly displaced people worldwide. "Every day that this financial uncertainty continues will increase the impact on the lives of the millions of people that have fled their homes to find security." Helping the vulnerable Yasmin Rajah, director of the KwaZulu-Natal-based RSS, said the organisation had relied on the US for a grant to provide services for vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers. She said these particularly vulnerable migrants include the elderly, people with disabilities and those suffering from terminal illnesses who have limited support networks with no one to look after them. The services offered included counselling, safe spaces, and a small amount of money to cover medication, transportation to medical facilities, food, and housing. Following the cessation of the grant, Rajah said the RSS would have to consider retrenchments. She said the organisation was also scrambling to work out a way to continue caring for this vulnerable group of migrants. With the greatest concern being hunger, Rajah said RSS had reached out to faith-based organisations to provide food parcels to fill the gap, but this had not been nearly enough. She told News24: We didn't have enough notice to sort things out. Despite this, Rajah said the organisation was grateful for the support it received from the US as it had filled a "very significant gap". Devastating Jacob van Garderen, human rights lawyer and director at Public Interest Practice, told News24 that the impact of the funding cuts would be devastating. However, he said, perhaps less so in South Africa, where refugees and asylum seekers are not entirely dependent on humanitarian assistance for their survival, as the government allows integration so that migrants can get work and don't have to live in camps. "But still, organisations like Scalabrini and RSS, who deliver essential support to migrant communities, will [suffer] a severe impact on their work and support of services of these communities, [which] is always focused on the most at risk and vulnerable communities, such as children, women at risk, disabled migrants, etc," Van Garderen said. He said very few of these organisations, if any, would have the reserves to continue the work unabated. Internationally, the big concern is not just that the US government has done it (cut funding), but more the way in which they have done it, without prior notice or transition. He said it was difficult to escape the conclusion that the funding cut was meant to punish and decimate a humanitarian infrastructure. 'It's cruel. It is not what you would have expected from the US, [which], for all its criticisms, has established itself as the largest donor of support to humanitarian action globally." Afrikaner refugee The decision to cut aid to these organisations helping refugees and asylum seekers comes less than a month after an executive order by Trump, potentially offering Afrikaners refugee resettlement in the US. In his 7 February executive order, Trump also authorised the secretary of state and the secretary of homeland security to take "appropriate steps" to prioritise "humanitarian relief", including "admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Programme, for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination". However, on 20 January, Trump signed another order suspending all applications for refugee status until the homeland security advisor submits a report regarding whether the resumption of refugees' entry into the US would be in the interests of the Western powerhouse. |
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On Friday, Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber confirmed in an X post that Percy Tshabane, the department's acting chief of director of employee engagement, had been suspended pending a thorough investigation into allegations that he solicited bribes to approve the payment of service providers. The official in question has been suspended and a full investigation is underway. Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber on Friday confirmed that Percy Tshabane has been suspended pending a thorough investigation. Noko Mashilo/Daily Sun City Press reported on 9 February that one lawyer, who identified himself as Mareng Mareng, had alleged that lawyers were being frustrated by the department's chief director responsible for legal. The lawyer also sent a whistleblower complaint to Schreiber's office, Parliament and the Public Service Commission. Two sources privy to the details revealed that shortly after the publication of the story, Schreiber appointed the law firm, Werkmans, to investigate the allegations. The source said: The lawyers found evidence in the form of a bank deposit and questioned Tshabane, who admitted that he did receive the money from the complaining lawyer. However, he said the lawyer was his brother and there was nothing untoward with him asking for financial help. On Monday, the law firm recommended that he be suspended, and he was on Tuesday. In one text message, purportedly from Tshabane to a lawyer, he asked: Are you winning? I only managed to get R2 000 and [I] am short of R3 000. Another lawyer told City Press that the chief director once asked for R5 000 for rent and, because they were owed more than R500 000, he gave him R10 000. According to the lawyer, Tshabane used various means to collect money from the service providers, including deposits into his bank account and cash drop-offs at his office. A senior official in the department of home affairs, who allegedly demanded kickbacks from service providers to approve their invoices, has been suspended. Noko Mashilo/Daily Sun In his earlier response, Tshabane told City Press that he was on leave from 17 December 2024 until 20 January 2025. He added: “Surprisingly, I received a call while on leave from an employee of one of the service providers who said he understood that I was holding on payments and they would not be paid. He mentioned to me a lot of things that were said and I indicated to him that we would only pay in April 2025.” Tshabane said that, on his return, he arranged an official meeting with the service providers in the office to explain what was delaying their payments, which they understood. He added that, since the legal fraternity was a highly regulated environment, he found it perplexing that the allegations were levelled against him. He said, if there were unreasonable delays or he was soliciting bribes, service providers could invoke a clause dealing with dispute resolution in the service level agreement or escalate it to higher authorities. He said: To this end, I deny having requested money from a service provider. I do not rule out being name-dropped by others when facing pressure from the service providers just to ward them off that the invoices are with Tshabane. Tshabane said he previously received an enquiry from a person purporting to be a journalist, with a foreign accent. "I suspect collusion as we are operating in a highly syndicated environment and any number can be ported." He denied ever sending messages to service providers and said the aggrieved parties should approach the counter-corruption and law enforcement agencies for further investigations. Tshabane could not be reached for comment this week as his phone rang unanswered. The department said the matter was internal and could not be discussed in the media. |
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Liphoko’s ordeal began in 2003 when he was in Grade 10 in Botshabelo and applied for an identity document (ID) both privately and through his school. Despite repeated applications, he never received his ID before matriculating in 2006, which prevented him from pursuing tertiary education. “My birth certificate was an old handwritten one with just my birth date. I applied in Botshabelo and Welkom, where my family lives, but nothing happened,” said Liphoko. He was later advised to apply in Brandfort, his place of birth, yet still had no success. With no ID, he had to abandon his dreams of becoming a medical doctor and take on informal jobs. Liphoko eventually received his ID in 2007. However, another challenge arose in 2009 when his family attempted to amend their surname to his father’s. While his parents and siblings successfully changed theirs, Liphoko’s surname remained unchanged. “We asked why, and they said they did not know,” he explained. Now, 15 years later, Vuyo is still trying to rectify this issue. In 2023, he applied again at Home Affairs in Bloemfontein, submitting all required documents. “They told me I would receive an SMS or phone call. I received neither,” he said. When he followed up, officials claimed there were no records of him. After being sent from one official to another, Liphoko was eventually directed to Brandfort’s records office in Bultfontein, where he discovered missing pages in the record books. “I am now at a point where I cannot get married. My children do not have my surname,” he said. “My father has even passed on without me having his surname.” Despite these challenges and the endless back-and-forth, Liphoko is hoping for a positive outcome. “I want to know if someone sold my identity or if there’s any foul play on the department’s side. I want that person to be held accountable, and I want the Department of Home Affairs to be held accountable because I’m not responsible for writing my own name in the child registration unit - neither are my parents. There were people assigned to do a specific job, and they failed to do it,” he said. When approached for comment, Home Affairs spokesperson Siya Qoza stated that he received a message indicating that the matter had been resolved and is currently verifying how it was addressed before providing further details. Liphoko has confirmed that the department contacted him, but both he and Bloemfontein Courant are still waiting for clarity on the outcome and how the matter was resolved. |
