Sipho Mahlangu is the Chief Reporter and covers the police, the courts and the crime beat, including the cases that go quiet and the charges that do not hold.
Refugee reception offices must now accept asylum applications from people who entered South Africa without papers, after the department moved to give effect to a binding judgment. Critics say the change invites abuse. The department says it has no choice in law.
Heightened police deployments will stay in Durban and Johannesburg hotspots after violent protests over undocumented immigration. Thirty people have been arrested, 25 in KwaZulu-Natal and five in Gauteng.
