South African court ruling on asylum seekers marked by unrest and disinformation

When South Africa’s shuttered refugee offices were ordered to accept new applications in September following an earlier Constitutional Court ruling, violence erupted. Anti-immigration groups vilified the decision, falsely claiming that asylum seekers could vote and sowing confusion about the status of Home Affairs offices. The disinformation mirrored the fearmongering stirred up by xenophobic unrest in the first half of 2026.