JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- The South African government will ask the courts to oversee the implementation of a Constitutional Court ruling on asylum applications, as anti-immigration protests continue in parts of the country, the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Migration said Sunday.
The immediate trigger for the country's latest round of anti-immigration protests was a Sept. 28 directive issued by the Department of Home Affairs following the Constitutional Court's July 7 judgment in the Scalabrini Center of Cape Town case.
The directive outlined procedures for processing asylum applications, but anti-immigration groups viewed it as an attempt to regularize the status of undocumented migrants. Protests in Durban and Soweto turned violent, with vehicles set alight. The department withdrew the directive on Friday.
Briefing the media on Sunday, IMC Chairperson and Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Mmamoloko Kubayi said the government decided to seek a supervisory order to clarify how the ruling should be implemented. The order could include a suspension period to give the Department of Home Affairs time to strengthen its administrative capacity and improve its handling of asylum applications.
"The objective is not to delay compliance, but to ensure effective and sustainable compliance that serves both the administration of justice and the broader public interest," Kubayi said.
She stressed that the government remained legally bound to comply with the existing court order while seeking further guidance from the courts.
Meanwhile, the Department of Home Affairs plans to introduce a new registration and appointment system for asylum applications by Nov. 10. The government is also moving ahead with plans to relocate refugee reception centers to ports of entry, starting with Beitbridge by December.
The IMC said 30 people had been arrested since Thursday, including 25 in KwaZulu-Natal and five in Gauteng, on charges including public violence and illegal gathering, and called on the public to exercise restraint and resolve grievances through lawful channels.
"Matters relating to asylum, migration, and border management must be addressed through lawful processes and not through misinformation, intimidation, incitement, or acts of violence," Kubayi said. ■
