The South African government, on Friday, withdrew a directive on processing asylum seekers’ applications following violent anti-foreigner protests in Soweto and Durban.

Violent protests that saw about 24 cars razed and foreigners’ properties vandalised and looted by locals on Thursday forced South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs to announce the withdrawal of the directive.

The protests erupted over a Constitutional Court ruling easing access to asylum, including for migrants who entered South Africa without the requisite asylum transit visas or missed reporting deadlines.

“The Director-General of the Department of Home Affairs has withdrawn the directive regarding the intake of asylum-seeker applications,” a statement by South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs said on Friday.

According to the statement, the directive was issued to all refugee reception offices (RROs) on 28 September 2026 as a purely operational measure to support the implementation of the Constitutional Court order of July 7 in the Scalabrini of Cape Town matter.

However, Leon Schreiber, South Africa’s minister of home affairs, said, “Claims that it was a politically motivated decision are therefore categorically untrue, as the directive emanated from a Constitutional Court case that the department had opposed. However, the attempt to implement the judgment immediately had serious consequences that could not have been foreseen in the court order.”

The Department of Home Affairs said that, with these new facts at hand, it would embark on a fresh process to determine the most appropriate operational approach to ensure compliance with the Constitutional Court’s order.