DURBAN: March and March co-founder Jacinta Mangobese Zuma has called on South Africans who feel betrayed by the Constitutional Court’s recent ruling on asylum applications to change their social-media profile pictures to a “bleeding national flag” as a symbol of mass protest.

Mangobese Zuma said the initiative was intended to demonstrate public dissatisfaction with the implications of the court judgment and the government’s implementation of the ruling.

Her call comes after the Constitutional Court in July declared several provisions of the Refugees Act unconstitutional. The provisions had effectively created barriers for people who entered South Africa irregularly or failed to report to a refugee reception office within the prescribed period.

The court found that these restrictions unlawfully limited access to the asylum system and were inconsistent with constitutional protections and the principle of non-refoulement.

Following the judgment, the Department of Home Affairs issued a directive instructing refugee reception offices to accept asylum applications from people who indicate that they wish to seek protection, including undocumented people who entered the country illegally.

However, the judgment does not mean that every undocumented foreign national automatically receives asylum or legal status in South Africa. Applicants still have to go through the asylum process and have their claims determined under the Refugees Act.

Mangobese Zuma’s campaign is now urging South Africans opposed to the court ruling and its consequences to use the bleeding-flag profile picture as a visual expression of their concerns and to portray what she describes as a mass demonstration on social media.

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