Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
home affairslatest news & developments
Homeward bound: The first group of 300 Ghanaians departing from OR Tambo International Airport, east of Johannesburg, to Ghana on Wednesday. Photo: Ghana High Commission, South Africa

Ghana repatriates 300 citizens from SA

The rare voluntary state-assisted return for Ghanaians, which comes amid rising anti-immigrant sentiment, has sparked debate on xenophobia, migration policy and precedent

Human movement: Migration is a major issue, but there has not been enough action to deal with the root causes — such as inequality and instability across the continent. Photo: Delwyn
Verasamy

Immigration debate is misdirected, savage 

It is also true that undocumented migration can create space for criminal activity. But we have to be honest: immigrants are not the main drivers of crime in this country. Data…

South Africa must resist two dangerous temptations simultaneously: the temptation to demonise all foreign nationals and the temptation to silence every concern about illegal immigration through accusations of xenophobia. (Paul Botes)

Where does patriotism end and xenophobia begin?

There is something deeply dishonest about how few South Africans discuss immigration. They have become comfortable with moral grandstanding while communities collapse under the…

Going nowhere: President Cyril Ramaphosa had once again weathered an internal push to unseat him before
the end of his term in 2027. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy

SA 2025: Scenic route from G20 to NGC

This was the year that was — South Africa’s chequered 2025, a year that ends not with resolution, but with reckoning

President Cyril Ramaphosa with late former deputy president David Mabuza.(Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Ramaphosa’s office says DD Mabuza’s pension saga is a family matter

AlexForbes said it would not oppose the application by Mabuza’s daughter to have the R44 million pension pay out stopped

Browned off: R&B star Chris Brown appears in court in Los Angeles in 2014 after assaulting singer Rihanna, with whom he was in a relationship. Photo: Lucy Nicholson-Pool/Getty Images

Chris Brown: Should home affairs have acted?

The US musician, who has a history of violence against women, is set to perform in Johannesburg

The Constitutional Court will rule on whether parliament acted lawfully when it rejected a Section 89 panel report recommending an impeachment inquiry into President Cyril Ramaphosa over the Phala Phala scandal

Presidency rebukes DA over Ukraine as foreign policy row heats up

The government will not review foreign policy to accommodate the demands of the Democratic Alliance, a senior official said

File photo by ER Lombard/Gallo Images via Getty Images

Cabinet applauds conviction of Home Affairs officials in fraudulent passport scheme

Home Affairs minister Leon Schreiber said the convictions proved that corruption could be defeated

Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber. (Photo by Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

Home Affairs Minister Schreiber to revive Immigration Advisory Board

The board will provide input on the future of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit, the new minister said in his budget speech

File photo by Madelene Cronjé

Lack of resources, not migration control, contributes to SA education problems, says law centre

A shortage of resources is failing South Africa’s undocumented children, with more than 258 000 awaiting birth registration, says the Centre for Child Law

File photo by ER Lombard/Gallo Images via Getty Images

Court orders home affairs not to ‘block’ children’s IDs

The decision will provide relief to children whose parents’ identity documents have been marked as suspicious or under investigation

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi .(Alet Pretorius/Foto24/Gallo Images)

Motsoaledi withdrawing South Africa from international refugees treaties is not a solution

The country must chart a humane policy for refugees that flows from the spirit and objects of the post-apartheid constitutional order

Africa’s migration challenge cannot be resolved through enforcement alone. Nor can it be addressed through abstract continental declarations disconnected from implementation realities.

Supreme court of appeal ruling allows lost citizens back

Since 1995, South Africans who gained citizenship of another country lost their local one, but the court said home affairs had given no legitimate purpose for this

Zolile Sikelele.
File photo by Mlungisi Louw/Volksblad/Gallo Images via Getty Images

Thabo Bester saga: Nandipha Magudumana’s father granted bail

Zolile Sikelele, the father of Bester’s partner, Nandipha Magudumana, was granted bail with conditions on Monday morning

Long: Zimbabweans queue outside the home affairs office in Johannesburg. The government has decided to withdraw the special dispensation previously afforded to Zimbabweans. (Lebohang Masiloane/ The Times/Gallo Images)

Motsoaledi tore up policy paper in scrapping Zimbabwe exemption permit, court hears

The Helen Suzman Foundation argued in court this week that the home affairs minister mislead permit holders and failed to give them a fair chance to regularise their status

Chris Hani’s murderer, Janusz Walus. (Reuters)

Janusz Walus stabbed by fellow inmate

The man who murdered Chris Hani is receiving medical care after an attack three days before his court-ordered release on parole

Nowhere to go: Zimbabwean
special permit holders outside Home Affairs.
(Madelene Cronjé)

Home affairs department fails to serve citizens and non-nationals

The dysfunctional department is a hindrance to an inclusive and progressive asylum seeker and refugee regime in South Africa

Targeted: On the day the M&G visited the township, immigration officials arrested people without reasonable suspicion of a crime having been committed, allegedly for ‘looking like’ foreigners. Photos: Denvor de Wee

Diepsloot raids ‘illegal’, say lawyers

Harassment, xenophobia – and jubilation – are on display when Mail & Guardian visits the township

File photo by ER Lombard/Gallo Images via Getty Images

National Treasury sued for R63 million for nonpayments

The liquidators of Double Ring wants an order forcing treasury to get government departments to pay invoices on time

Young People take part in a Trans freedom march for victims of transphobic hatred with a banner saying Trans lives matter, on November 20, 2021 in Rome, Italy. Transgender Day of Remembrance (Tdor) is the global day of remembrance for victims of hate and violence against transgender people.  (Photo by Simona Granati – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

South Africa is home to a culture of transphobia

Two M&G articles defending trans-exclusionary views draw on the insidious anti-trans rhetoric flourishing in the UK, but ignore our country’s constitutional protections