The amended Refugee Act in South Africa: a human rights crisis

Opinion Piece by Selin Uyguç

Edited by Diana Ciurezu

South Africa was the largest recipient of immigrants in the African continent in 2019. A Pew Research poll conducted in 2018 showed that 62% of South Africans viewed immigrants as a burden on society by taking jobs and social benefits and that 61% of South Africans thought that immigrants were more responsible for crime than other groups.

Between 2000 and March 2008, at least 67 people died in what were identified as xenophobic attacks. This history of xenophobia in the country especially post 1994, is likely further fuelled by the current, wider political conjuncture of South Africa and the xenophobic populism of the current regime. The Johannesburg Riots of 2019 targeting foreign nationals from the rest of Africa, of a similar nature to the riots of 2008, is a recent incident that demonstrates this very prominent socio-political issue in the country.

This series of events set the background for the new law, that is problematic from a human rights perspective and is discriminatory towards refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants.

The new law will enable South African government to strip refugees of their asylum status if they engage in any political activity relating to their home countries. This controversial law stands problematic with various freedoms guaranteed under the South African constitution, such as freedom of speech and expression, and these are the grounds on which the representatives of asylum seekers and refugees are hoping to base their claims.

The refugees from countries such as Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Burundi and Congo had long been relying on the freedom in South Africa to act up against and make a difference in the political systems of their home countries. Now, their refugee status can easily be disrupted. South Africa, being a country in which the ruling party fought the former apartheid government for years as a liberation movement in exile, is arguably contradicting itself in amending the Refugee Act in this way. Faced with this question, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has said that the circumstances are not the same:

“The ANC people who lived in countries did not go there to say ‘I’m a refugee, just protect me.’ They went there and said ‘I am a freedom fighter’”.

The Johannesburg Riots

This reduction of the position of refugees and their political and social struggles speaks for itself, and displays the underlying ideology. The act of seeking asylum in places where one can exercise his or her fundamental rights in order to speak out against the repressive regimes of their home countries is a fight for freedom and does not merit such a passive tone.

Many refugees and activists such as Gabriel Hertis from Rwanda think that this law, going against the core values of the South African Constitution’s Bill of Rights, ‘is an attempt to change the constitution through back-door channels’.

Further legal implications can include other mentioned governments in Africa gaining the ability to interfere: according to the South African government, one of the main goals of this law is to maintain good relations with neighbours and avoid war. The new scene set by the amendment can mean extraditions might even be on the horizon.

There have been questions on the wording of the law and the government has left the door open for discussions on how it will take effect precisely. As South Africa, dubbed the protest capital of the world, continues to be challenged by the issues of femicide and xenophobia, 2020 seems to have even more in store for the country and its tense political climate