The Director-General of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has officially withdrawn a directive that instructed department offices to accept asylum applications for evaluation based on their merits, rather than excluding applicants on procedural grounds. The directive had originally been issued on September 28 in response to a July Constitutional Court ruling. That landmark decision declared certain provisions of the Refugees Act unconstitutional and invalid, determining that procedural hurdles violated fundamental rights by preventing asylum seekers from receiving a fair, merits-based assessment of their claims. Colleen Makhubele spoke to Sharon Ekambaram Head of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) in South Africa, Adv Lufuno Nevondwe - Constitutional Law Expert, Tiego Khoza Political Analyst and Hon Vuyolwethu Zungula ATM