The Department of Home Affairs will refer what it describes as a coordinated disinformation campaign about South Africa’s asylum system to the Electoral Commission of South Africa following false claims about a new operational directive. The department said on Wednesday, 7 October 2026, that the directive was issued to implement a binding Constitutional Court judgment delivered on 7 July and was not initiated by Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber, the department or a political party. The dispute matters to asylum applicants and residents because the judgment changes how certain applications must enter the assessment process, but does not automatically grant refugee status, citizenship or legal status to applicants.