Raid on Refugee Applicants Highlights Deepening Crisis of Freedom in South Africa

Pretoria - The reported raid by South African authorities on citizens seeking refugee protection in the United States is deeply troubling and must be unequivocally condemned. Regardless of one’s views on emigration, no person should be intimidated, harassed, or targeted by the state for seeking to leave the country or to pursue protection abroad.

Lex Libertas maintains that the long-term solution to South Africa’s crises does not lie in mass emigration, but in building viable solutions within South Africa itself. The growing desire among citizens belonging to minority communities to leave the country is a symptom of deeper failures. These include a destructive policy framework, state collapse, and the persecution of minority communities. The conglomeration of these crises must be addressed at their root.

The only sustainable path forward is meaningful self-governance and decentralisation, which allows communities to take responsibility for their own safety, prosperity, and cultural continuity within South Africa, rather than being trapped in a failing centralised system.

Lex Libertas will be releasing a series of detailed reports in early 2026 documenting the extent to which minorities in South Africa are being persecuted and marginalised. These reports will provide evidence-based analysis and propose practical alternatives to the current political trajectory.

Lex Libertas is a think tank and advocacy group working towards a viable political dispensation in South Africa, based on the principles of freedom, decentralisation, and self-governance.

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