Bureaucracy Over Humanity: Why 160 Palestinian Refugees Were Left Stranded in a South African Plane
For thirteen hours, 160 Palestinian war refugees were stranded aboard a plane at OR Tambo Airport.
MK Party Provincial Convenor Busisiwe Mkhwebane says their treatment breaches South Africa’s UN obligations.
The incident exposes a moral and legal crisis within Home Affairs.
It signals a dangerous erosion of sovereignty and humanitarian conscience.
Law and Experience
Former Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, who previously served as Acting Chief Director for Asylum Seekers in the Department of Home Affairs and now serves as Provincial Convenor for the MK Party in Mpumalanga, has re-entered this debate with the authority of direct experience. During her tenure she exercised oversight over refugee admissions and was responsible for implementing South Africa’s obligations under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol.
Speaking as an immigration and refugee expert, Mkhwebane affirms that acceptance of the 160 Palestinian refugees by Home Affairs is obligatory. She explains that South Africa’s accession to the UN Refugee Convention, signed without reservations, legally mandates their acceptance into the country.
During her tenure she advised the department to reconsider that accession, recommending that South Africa sign and ratify the Convention with reservations to enable the creation of refugee-processing facilities at border points. This would allow the state to manage asylum seekers in an organised and humane way while maintaining order.
A proposed Green Paper on International Migration in 2016, followed by a White Paper on International Migration in 2017, outlined this vision. The White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection, published in 2024, again proposed reforms to integrate asylum and migration management. Yet these remain unimplemented. The White Paper on the National Labour Migration Policy, released in 2025, focuses solely on the movement of workers and economic migrants, leaving the refugee element unresolved. The absence of a coherent policy for war refugees leaves South Africa’s asylum system fragmented and inconsistent with its legal obligations under the UN Convention.
Until comprehensive reform is enacted, South Africa remains legally bound to accept refugees directly, respecting its international agreements and constitutional principles of human rights.
What Really Happened
Reports show that the group, evacuated from Gaza and flown via Nairobi, was denied permission to disembark because the Border Management Authority (BMA) declared them inadmissible. Officials claimed their documents lacked exit stamps, supposedly proving they had not lawfully left their point of departure.
This reasoning collapses under scrutiny. These were not tourists crossing borders for leisure. They were war refugees fleeing genocide and displacement. Israeli forces reportedly refused to stamp their documents during evacuation, creating a bureaucratic trap that left them in legal limbo. Exhausted families were confined to an aircraft while South African officials debated paperwork.
The BMA, established under the Border Management Authority Act of 2020, reports directly to the Minister of Home Affairs, now held by Dr Leon Schreiber of the Democratic Alliance. The Authority enforces Home Affairs policy and acts under ministerial direction. The decision to deny entry therefore reflects departmental policy and ministerial oversight. The Minister cannot disown the BMA’s conduct or its implications.
A video of the incident, showing the stranded Palestinians aboard the aircraft and detailing the delay, has circulated widely on social media — see footage below:
@salaamedia How and Why did 160 Palestinians end up stranded on the tarmac at OR Tambo International Airport? Activist Na’eem Jeenah, who spent the entire day with them aboard the grounded plane under dire conditions, shares the details
The Mask of Bureaucracy
The incident reveals how bureaucracy can serve ideology. Under the Democratic Alliance-controlled Home Affairs ministry, administrative discretion now mirrors Western geopolitical preferences. The minister’s pattern is consistent: openness to Ukrainian representatives, cordiality with Israel, and hostility toward Russia, Palestine and Iran. The same department that left three hundred Russian cadets stranded at sea for days has now humiliated Palestinians seeking refuge from genocide.
This behaviour marks a drift from South Africa’s historic role as an anti-imperialist state to one that echoes NATO’s political tone. It also exposes the extent of Israeli interference in South Africa’s domestic affairs and sovereignty. By manipulating travel documentation, Israel influenced decisions inside a South African airport — decisions that should rest solely on South African law and conscience.
Policy Proposals and Their Limits
Mkhwebane’s Green Paper vision remains sound. Structured processing would maintain order, protect borders, and uphold humanity. But such a policy demands an administration guided by constitutional principle rather than ideological convenience. In the wrong hands, it could become an exclusionary system where humanitarian discretion is replaced by political loyalty tests.
The OR Tambo incident demonstrates that the problem lies not in policy design but in political will. The Green and White Papers on migration remain proposals on paper, not practice. The recent White Paper on Labour Migration addresses only economic mobility, ignoring the protection of war refugees. The contradiction is clear: efficiency for capital, silence for the displaced.
Law, Constitution, and Conscience
South Africa’s Constitution provides no room for ambiguity. Section 10 protects human dignity. Section 12 guarantees freedom and security of the person. Section 33 demands just administrative action. The Refugees Act compels the state to receive any person who enters the Republic seeking protection. None of these laws allow officials to detain people in an aircraft because of a missing stamp.
To treat war refugees as security risks is to betray the ideals that once guided the liberation struggle. It turns the Department of Home Affairs into the bureaucratic twin of those regimes that once denied South Africans entry and asylum during apartheid.
The Political Message
The missing exit stamp has become a symbol of something larger — the erosion of South Africa’s humanitarian identity. Bureaucracy has replaced compassion and ideology has replaced law. What should have been an act of refuge became a spectacle of subservience, an episode in which sovereignty was tested and found wanting.
The 160 Palestinians on that plane were the moral measure of our state. Their treatment told the world that South Africa, once the sanctuary of the oppressed, may now be bending under Western pressure.
Accountability and Sovereignty
This case demands a parliamentary and judicial review. The Border Management Authority must account for its decision-making chain, and the minister must explain why international commitments were ignored. The ideological drift within Home Affairs reflects a broader pattern of Western-aligned reform across key portfolios such as Home Affairs, Treasury and Foreign Affairs. This infiltration undermines BRICS solidarity and weakens South Africa’s standing as an independent voice for the Global South.
Restoring the Moral Compass
Mkhwebane’s intervention is timely. She speaks from the authority of law and the experience of administration. Her reminder is simple: until immigration policy is reformed through proper legislative process, South Africa remains legally and morally bound to admit all asylum seekers who reach its borders.
The treatment of these Palestinians was a violation of international convention and of our collective humanity. They were war refugees — people entitled to safety, dignity, and due process.
If South Africa is to reclaim its moral compass, it must ensure that the next time refugees arrive at our borders, the first thing they encounter is not suspicion or paperwork, but the conscience of a nation that once knew the value of solidarity.
* Gillian Schutte is a South African writer, filmmaker, poet, and uncompromising social justice activist. Founder of Media for Justice and co-owner of handHeld Films, she is recognised for hard-hitting documentaries and incisive opinion pieces that dismantle whiteness, neoliberal capitalism, and imperial power.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.