READ: Home Affairs asylum system rollout draws backlash

The Department of Home Affairs’ move to digitise South Africa’s asylum application process has triggered fresh tensions, with anti-immigration groups mobilising against asylum seekers attempting to access refugee reception centres.

Professor Loren Landau (ACMS, Wits University) says the campaign goes beyond opposition to immigration and raises serious questions about the rights of people seeking protection under South African law.

“This is a sign of desperation. Of a movement seeking to be relevant and a politics that has little to substantively offer South Africans.”

Landau argues that these groups are not pushing for improvements to the asylum system, they want to see it abolished. He notes the digital platform is particularly threatening to them because it could produce reliable data on asylum applications, challenging their claims about the scale of migration.

“The digital system is additionally threatening to them because it will produce hard numbers that will undermine their spurious claims.”