25 January 2026
TO ALL MEDIA HOUSES
PRESS RELEASE
NO EMBARGO
Al Jama-ah calls for the immediate withdrawal of the White Paper that contains provisions on Citizenship, Immigration, and Refugee protection and it urges the South African Law Commission to produce a new fresh constitutionally-friendly one:
Al Jama-ah Party’s Constituencies throughout Limpopo Province are holding an urgent meeting to discuss its submissions to be made at public hearings in Polokwane on Monday, 26 January 2026, on the provisions on the White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee protection. What is surprising for our party, as a member of the Government of National Unity (GNU), is the fact that there is a deafening silence from GNU’s progressive partners as well as significant civil society organizations.
Our party respectfully demands the circulated White Paper’s immediate withdrawal since it is an affront to us, as a democratic nation, because the proposed crafted changes are draconian in their formulation and they definitely undermine our Constitutional values for which we – South Africans – fought and yearned for.
It should be withdrawn and a fresh one should be produced by a set of crafters who are d democratically-oriented and carefully handpicked to ensure a fair set of policies are generated. In other words, the revised and amended White Paper’s proposals should be in line with our Constitution’s philosophy; and it should be one that works in our nation’s interest as a whole and not function in the interest of a Trump-like cabal that wishes to undemocratically control and manipulatively dominate our beloved country politically, economically, and otherwise.
Let it be clear: our party outrightly rejects the provisions that appears in this White Paper despite the niceties in the phrasing and wording. Our party views it as subtly racist and an essentially White supremacist in nature; revealing quite openly to what extent it veered off from the White Paper that cabinet approved during early 2024.
The party’s leader, Hon Ganief Hendricks, who is a member of the GNU’s Leaders’ Forum frankly says, the proposals seem to be “creating pathways for whites (aka Europeans) to get (free) visas – as compared to Africans – on arrival for business, residency, and citizenship; and this is at the appalling expense of blacks who have generally been marginalized economically and politically. An African from any part of our continent should not be viewed as an ‘illegal immigrant’ in South Africa.”
The provisions, as a matter of fact, restrict Africans, Southwest Asians, Southeast Asians, and South Asians from pursuing business opportunities, legal residency or citizenship in South Africa. And when any of them apply for refugee status or seeking asylum as a result of their conflicts in their home countries, they find themselves facing umpteen challenges! The issue of refugees, for example, should not be seen as controversial matter seeing that during our anti-apartheid struggle fighters were in exile in various parts of Africa; many of these African countries, the party stresses, played a major role towards contributing towards our liberation.
While the party readily acknowledges that our country’s authorities encounter myriads of challenges with the increase of illegal migrants seeking greener pastures, the party’s leadership argues that our democratically-elected government should plough in more financial and material resources; this would assist in preventing illegals from entering unlawfully our country’s porous borders and basically bring an end to this phenomenon. Worded differently, it will indeed change if our Border Management Authority (BMA) and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), who staff land and sea borders, are given all the necessary support.
That aside, the White Paper’s proposals clearly turn their back – in Trumpian style – on our country’s democratic principles; these slyly constructed proposals thus not only prevent Africans from pursuing better lifestyles and contributing to our economy, but many talented Asians too face the same fate. Allow our party to categorically make the point that despite the niceties in the wording, the proposals have been manufactured to keep out ‘people of colour’; those who are not European nor American! Now this is essentially racist, is it not?
“While the “first safe country” is in the Convention for Refugees, South Africa has largely followed the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ and that of the African Union’s ‘African Charter of Human and People’s Rights’ in granting asylum to refugees especially those from our continent. This is in line with the revolutionary foundational principles of the liberation movement that has guided South Africa’s resistance fighters,” says Hendricks.
The party points out that any country, like South Africa that has made progressive strides in 30 years of democracy with a majority led government with regard to the Convention it signed on refugees and the pathways it created for residency and citizenship, is now losing all these gains with a recrafted – in Trump-like fashion – Eurocentric White Paper.
This redrafted policy is dramatically changing – what may be described as a revolutionary policy – to one that not only creates fear and anxiety but that is inherently hostile towards asylum seekers and refugees that wish to immigrate from very unsettling surroundings. Related to this, it is quite shocking to read that the proposals reject the time that a foreigner spent legally in the country is no longer sufficient to earn residency; the DA proposals shrewdly put forward “merit based” system! Permit our party to ask a simple rhetorical question: is this not similar to the DA and others who glibly argue against employment equity legislation that is designed to maintain apartheid inequality?
The party wishes to state that our fellow Africans, who come from different parts of our continent, will bear the brunt if this questionable policy is blindly approved. Let it categorically be stated that it cannot be that those African nations, who assisted us – as the oppressed – against the South African apartheid state to get our fought-for freedom, are treated with contempt and disdain. None of us can forget to what extent the racist regime – supported by the Western countries – propped up their numbers by bringing in East Europeans!
Al Jama-ah calls on our government to seriously reconsider its obligations towards Africa as a continent; and it urges that it should not look at it from a forced Eurocentric perspective. Our nation should demonstrate our Ubuntu values that are shared continentally. All of us know that we reside in a cosmopolitan world; and for us as South Africans, there are many ways that we can benefit from citizens who come from African and Asian nation-states.
It should be publicized that the western world has been and continues to loot our continent’s natural resources; just imagine, if these resources had been or are given back to our African countries, then each one would have been economically productive. In the case of our country, which has several manufacturing capabilities, all – not only a few – African countries would have benefitted. Unfortunately, our continent and our country are influenced by the proverbial west via skewed policies such as the one circulated by the current Department of Home Affairs that is in the hands of a pro-Zionist state, namely the rogue state of Israel. It is thus not surprising that the Minister of Home Affairs who is a member of the Democratic Alliance should put forward these preposterous proposals.
Al Jama-ah wishes to underline that South Africa has many scare skills in fields of academia, medical, and others which can be filled by qualified immigrants from our continent as well as Asia. “South Africa should expand its relations with African countries and make use of unutilised resources for the benefit of Africans including refugees,” says Hendricks.
Issued by Asghar Khan on behalf of Al Jama-ah
For media enquiries contact:
Nisa Hendricks (Media and Marketing Manager)
Cell: 082 613 1917