Judges take their seat at South Africa’s Constitutional Court ahead of the ruling on whether the parliament failed to hold President Cyril Ramaphosa to account over the “Farmgate” scandal, involving allegations that foreign currency was hidden at his Phala Phala game farm, in Johannesburg, South Africa, May 8, 2026. Image @ REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo
South Africa’s Constitutional Court has delivered a landmark ruling barring foreign nationals from filing fresh asylum applications after their initial bids have been turned down. The court cautioned that, without supporting legislation, permitting endless reapplications would trap the system in a “never-ending cycle,” obstructing deportations and overwhelming immigration authorities.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber, a member of the Democratic Alliance — the second-largest party in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s coalition government — hailed the decision as a “major victory” against what he described as widespread exploitation of the country’s refugee framework. Speaking to local broadcaster Newzroom Afrika, Schreiber said his department had led the legal challenge against a lower court’s more permissive stance, arguing it would have handed individuals repeated opportunities to “constantly abuse the system” through successive applications.
The case stretches back to two Burundian nationals who had their asylum requests denied in 2014 and reapplied four years later, citing the wave of political violence that swept their home country during the 2015 presidential election crisis. That unrest, triggered by then-President Pierre Nkurunziza’s contentious bid for a third term, left at least 70 people dead. The applicants initially prevailed at the Supreme Court of Appeal, but the Constitutional Court — the country’s final appellate authority — overturned that decision by a majority ruling.
The verdict arrives at a tense moment for South Africa’s immigration landscape. The country currently hosts more than 167,000 refugees and asylum seekers, according to 2025 figures from the UN refugee agency, drawn largely from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Rwanda and Zimbabwe. Beyond that, official data puts the broader migrant population at roughly 2.4 million — just under four percent of the total population — though the actual number of undocumented residents is widely believed to be significantly higher.
Ramaphosa’s government has faced mounting domestic pressure over immigration, with mass protests erupting in several major cities demanding the deportation of undocumented foreigners. The president this week attributed the violence against migrants to “opportunists,” distancing his administration from the attacks and stressing in an open letter that such acts neither reflect public sentiment nor government policy. Several African governments have nonetheless raised formal concerns with the African Union and issued warnings to their citizens living in South Africa. As the continent’s most industrialised economy, the country remains a powerful magnet for workers seeking opportunity from across Africa.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah