It has been more than two years since the SCA ordered the Department of Home Affairs to reopen the Port Elizabeth refugee reception office. But this has not happened, a report in The Times says. In 2011 the department closed its refugee reception offices in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg. This resulted in three cases challenging the closure.

Two weeks ago the court ordered the department to re-open the Cape Town refugee reception office. The court said it had previously ordered the department to restore services to the Port Elizabeth office by July 2015, but to no avail. Wayne Mncube, of Lawyers for Human Rights, said after the judgment the organisation wrote to the department asking it to comply with the court order.

He said the department had said it was trying to comply with the order and had taken certain steps to acquire a site for a new building. ‘However, the department’s deadlines it had set for itself have expired. I have sent a letter asking the department for an update. Their attorneys said they would seek instructions from the department,’ Mncube said.

Full report in The Times