U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 1998 - South Africa

  South Africa hosted an estimated 28,000 refugees and asylum seekers at the end of 1997. These included about 4,000 recognized refugees, about 2,000 persons effectively granted temporary protection, and nearly 22,000 people whose asylum applications remained undecided. More than 14,000 people applied for asylum in South Africa in 1997. Recognized refugees in South Africa included about 3,000 people from Somalia and about 1,000 from other countries; the 2,000 people granted temporary protection were overwhelmingly from Angola. At least several thousand South Africans were internally displaced at year's end. Refugee Legislation The status of refugees and other foreigners in South Africa in 1997 continued to be regulated by the Aliens Control Act of 1991, as amended. Although the government had hoped to enact refugee-specific legislation in 1997, such a law had not been established by year's end. The apparent growth of anti-foreigner sentiment in South Africa during 1997 heightened refugee advocates' concern over the lack of refugee legislation. A government-commissioned "green paper" on immigration released in mid-year recommended that South Africa enter into a "collectivized" protection system in which it and other southern African states would join forces to provide temporary asylum to refugees. The paper urged the government to enact legislation that would provide specific legal protections to refugees and would separate in both law and policy the issues of asylum and immigration. Asylum Procedure In 1993, South Africa agreed to consider granting asylum using the refugee definitions found in the OAU convention on refugees or the UN Refugee Convention. South Africa formally acceded to the two documents in December 1995 and January 1996, respectively. In the absence of refugee legislation, the asylum determination procedure in South Africa in 1997 was based largely on executive discretion. Human rights activists criticized South Africa's asylum procedure as arbitrary and lacking transparency. Observers also criticized the asylum procedure as exceptionally slow and sometimes corrupt. Immigration officers within the Department of Home Affairs received asylum applications, forwarding them for decisions to either the Standing Committee for Refugee Affairs in Pretoria or to one of three Regional Subcommittees for Refugee Affairs in Braamfontein, Cape Town, and Durban. In practice, applications submitted by Angolans, Congolese/Zairians, and Somalis were directed to the subcommittees, while applications filed by persons of other nationalities were decided at the head office, in Pretoria. Asylum seekers have not been permitted to appear in person before any of the decision-making bodies. Nor have they been permitted to appear before the Appeal Board, South Africa's one-person appellate body. Only since December 1996 has the Department of Home Affairs agreed to furnish rejected applicants with an explanation of their denial. Although the asylum adjudication procedure in South Africa has received criticism for its protection shortcomings, it has provided asylum seekers, at least in theory, certain rights not always found in other countries. These included freedom of movement within the country and the right to seek employment while awaiting a status determination. These rights have contributed to abuse of the asylum system, according to some observers. The nearly 22,000 persons whose asylum applications were pending at year's end included thousands of people, including many non-Africans, from countries with relatively low asylum approval rates throughout the world. Some persons without valid claims to asylum have used the slow asylum procedure as a means to seek employment in South Africa, some observers charged. Corruption also plagued the asylum system, observers alleged. Officials at some Ministry of Home Affairs offices reportedly demanded bribes to process paperwork. Persons without valid claims to asylum were reportedly able to renew their temporary residence permits by paying fees to ministry personnel. Observers suggested that corruption within the system cast doubt on the reliability of asylum application statistics. Asylum Receipts and Decisions About 14,500 people submitted asylum applications in South Africa during 1997, including about 2,500 from Somalia, some 2,000 from Congo/Zaire, and about 1,500 from India. The number of people awaiting an asylum decision grew from about 13,500 at the beginning of 1997 to nearly 22,000 at year's end. Persons whose asylum applications remained undecided at year's end included more than 3,000 from Nigeria, more than 2,000 from Congo/Zaire, about 2,000 from Senegal, some 1,500 from India, about 1,500 from Somalia, some 1,000 from Bulgaria, and about 11,000 from other countries. Through 1997, South Africa granted refugee status to nearly 4,000 persons and rejected the applications of nearly 7,000 others. About 2,000 people, primarily Angolans, were essentially granted temporary protection by registering their asylum claims prior to a since-expired cutoff date. Research carried out in late 1997 by Human Rights Watch (HRW) suggested that asylum decisions were rarely based on an examination of an individual's application. Instead, HRW said, it appeared that South Africa granted refugee status to nationals of countries perceived as being "refugee-producers." Likewise, HRW noted that nationals of other countries appeared to be rejected automatically, regardless of any special circumstances surrounding their individual claims. Internal Displacement No reliable estimates existed of the number of internally displaced persons in South Africa at the end of 1997. While it was universally accepted that large numbers of South Africans have been displaced, it was unclear how many such persons should still be considered of concern to the international community. Based on information provided by South African human rights organizations, USCR believed that the number was probably in the thousands. Forcible displacement and consequent landlessness were hallmarks of South Africa's apartheid past, when millions of black Africans were forced from the land on which their ancestors had lived. Nascent land reform under the government of President Nelson Mandela has attempted to provide land to a few thousand of the millions of people so dispossessed. Inter-communal violence in the 1980s and early 1990s, especially in what is now KwaZulu-Natal Province, also displaced large numbers of people, often estimated in the hundreds of thousands. The number of persons displaced by violence who wished to return to their areas of origin remained unclear, however. Many appeared to have settled permanently in other areas, and might therefore no longer be considered internally displaced. The violence in KwaZulu-Natal largely pitted the predominantly ethnic-Zulu supporters of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) against supporters of Mandela's African National Congress (ANC). Virtual warfare reigned between the parties until 1994, when a partial rapprochement between Mandela and IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi eased the violence. Buthelezi later accepted a position in President Mandela's cabinet. Since 1994, the number of persons killed in politically inspired violence in the province has generally decreased in each successive year. The provincial-level IFP-ANC Peace Committee met regularly in 1997 to discuss political violence. Despite ANC-IFP cooperation, significant tension remained. While the ANC dominated South Africa's national government, the IFP was the dominant party in KwaZulu-Natal's provincial government. Much of the IFP's support base, steeped in the traditions of Zulu nationalism, dominated rural areas of the province, while the ANC generally had greater support in urban areas. Tolerance of persons, including returnees, perceived as loyal to "the other side" varied from place to place. Although violence in the province has declined in recent years, violent death and displacement continued, including in 1997. Human rights organizations reported hundreds of politically motivated killings during the year. Politically motivated attacks in 1997 in or near Inchanga, Mhubeni, Richmond, and Umlazi, among others, caused new displacement and death. A large police and military presence in the region "had a stabilizing effect, resulting in a quiet end to a very violent 1997," the U.S. Department of State reported. Human rights organizations estimated that the number of persons newly displaced from mid-1996 through 1997 was probably in the low thousands. Some newly displaced persons lived temporarily in rudimentary camps, which housed several hundred people at any given time in 1997. Displaced persons often moved in with friends or family members, or settled in communities on the outskirts of larger towns and cities, perhaps masking the extent of internal displacement.