South Africa plans court oversight of asylum ruling implementation

South Africa's government intends to ask a court for an order supervising implementation of a Constitutional Court ruling on asylum applications. Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi announced the plan at a Pretoria briefing on October 11.

The Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration outlined the proposal. Kubayi said court supervision could guide implementation while giving the Department of Home Affairs time to strengthen its application processing system.

She explained that a supervisory order would allow the court to retain oversight and provide guidance on putting the ruling into practice. It could also include a suspension period to allow the department to prepare. That is a possible feature of a future order, rather than a delay already granted.

Kubayi identified administrative arrangements, staff, infrastructure and processing capacity as areas needing development. The government said its proposed application was intended to support orderly compliance and sustainable implementation of the ruling.