In January 2006, Judge Van Reenen of the Cape High Court declared certain policies and practices for accepting and processing applications for asylum in the Western Cape Refugee Centre unconstitutional and issued a structural interdict against the Department of Home Affairs (DoHA). The matter had been brought to Court in 2005 by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) on behalf of Democratic Republic of Congo national De Gaulle Kiliko and 6 other asylum seekers with the hope that a legal intervention would improve service delivery for asylum-seekers at the DoHA.

On 9 March 2009, citing an affidavit submitted by the Home Affairs provincial chief immigration officer Jurie De Wet, the Court discharged the structural interdict because of the steps that were being taken by the DoHA to make the process more efficient. In particular, the Court stated that the government's undertaking to introduce a special dispensation whereby nationals from certain countries could obtain special exemptions under the Immigration Act played a vital role in arriving at its decision.

According to the affidavit in February this year, two hundred and seventy-two Section 22 permits were issued daily, in comparison with 20 per day during February 2005. In addition, the number of employees available to assist asylum seekers has risen from nine to 52 since the structural interdict was issued in 2006.

‘I am satisfied that the DoHA has at long last taken adequate steps in an attempt to purposefully take reasonable steps to ensure compliance with its constitutional obligations... I can do no more than to express the hope that such steps as have been introduced to date, will continue to improve incrementally in the future,' said Judge Van Reenen.'

However, as it is clear that the DoHA is struggling to effectively service foreign nationals in the Nyanga reception centre and in South Africa generally, the question remains whether the situation has in fact improved.

Asylum seekers continue to report problems with access to the DoHA office in Nyanga. They arrive early in the morning or the night before, wait all day in long queues, and often struggle to keep their place in the queue, while security officers try to maintain crowd control. Yet, they continue to be turned away, despite repeated attempts over many weeks or months.

This has caused considerable hardship for many asylum seekers as they must take time off of work, lose pay, and travel long distances to come to the office. They report facing problems with violence and theft while waiting in the queue. More significantly, they risk arrest and detention for not having asylum seeker permits or having expired asylum-seeker permits which they cannot renew due to being unable to access the DoHA.