Episode twelve is a little different to previous podcasts. We took this opportunity to review and celebrate the first 25 years of Human Rights Media Centre.

On the 15th of November HRMC celebrated it's silver jubilee celebration at Community House join us as we share some excerpts from the event and an interview with Founder and Director Shirley Gunn by Haroon Gunn Salie in December 2025.

Photographs by Lily van Rensburg.

Episode 11 delves into the challenges faced by refugees and asylum seekers in exercising the right to work.

The right to work is entrenched in international human rights law. First introduced in the 1945 Charter of the United Nations, the right to work is recognised in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The Refugees Act of 1998 provides refugees with the right to seek employment. This is consistent with the non-encampment policy that South Africa adopted, that aims to integrate refugees in communities and the economy.

In this episode, we focus on the on two main challengesthat refugees and asylum seekers face in exercising this right, namely the high unemployment rate in South Africa, and a difficult access to documentation. We reflect on some solutions, and advocate for a review of the current exclusionary and restrictive policies, and for a supportive environment oriented to job creation. And that women need additional support.

Episode ten focuses on the white paper on Immigration, Citizenship and Refugee Protection. This policy document, made public over a year ago, proposes major changes in the South African migration system that have far reaching consequences.

As people wait for the new legislation, there is mounting xenophobia in some communities. One of the unfavourable consequences is what is currently happening in state hospitals, as heard in this YouTube clip (August 2025) where Patriotic Alliance protesters were denying access to healthcare services for foreign nationals.

“We are kindly asking… if you know you are not a South African citizen, may you please get up and leave our hospital. If you know that you are not a South African citizen, may you please stand up and leave our hospital. [Some patients leaving]. Thank you very much, thank you gentleman. If you know you are not a South African citizen, you need to go and seek help from private hospitals, not here anymore. We’re supporting March in March organisation. We have already started here to activate hospitals. And the message is very clear. We don’t want foreign nationals, documents no documents…"

It is not too late to speak out! Before it becomes law.

Episode nine unpacks the endless delays causing fear and uncertainty experienced by asylum seekers stuck in the appeals’ process. We speak to three asylum seekers, review Human Rights Media Centre’s 2018 qualitative research that focused on the plight of fourteen Rwandan asylum seekers, who were and are, seven years later, still stuck in the Department of Home Affairs’ appeals system.

Justice delayed is justice denied for the ‘Rwandan-fourteen’ and more than one hundred thousand other asylum seekers waiting for replies to their appeals. The endless wait has terrible consequences on their lives.

oin your host Epiphanie Mukasano to further understand the challenges with the appeals backlog; and progress made thus far, as well as an interview of Bob Beerens, project manager of the backlog project at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Cover photograph provided by GroundUp photographer Joseph Chirume.

Episode eight focuses on the Department of Home Affair’s assertion that refugees are a burden to South Africa.

This is despite their small numbers, and the evidence showing that refugees and asylum seekers often make a positive contribution to the economy.

We can no longer accept the rhetoric that refugees are the problem: they are definitely part of the solution in addressing unemployment and poverty, and growing South Africa’s economy.

Episode seven focuses again on the White Paper circulated by the Department of Home Affairs. Many civil society organisations, including the Human Rights Media Centre, take strong issue with its intention. We consider it an outrage against the rights and human dignity of those who are forced to flee their homes. We aim to make this legal information accessible because the White Paper must be understood by everybody.

Episode six focuses on how the Human Rights Media Centre has, along with civil society, taken a stand against the Department of Home Affairs’ White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration & Refugee Protection.

We ask you to stand with us against this unacceptable proposal and to support refugees whose lives have been torn apart by conflict and discrimination, to build their futures as South Africans without further delay.

Episode five focuses on Umoja Wamama Crafters Co-Operative, a women’s collective allied to the Human Rights Media Centre. Most of the members are from the refugee community; some are South African veterans.

Umoja Wamama will soon celebrate its tenth anniversary and may be of interest to you in that it presents a different economic model, where every member is both contributor and beneficiary.

But the benefits, as you will hear, are richer than just economic.