It's difficult to distinguish between a political refugee and an economic refugee and, in the modern era, this distinction is critical.

Here's a question: If you are hostile to immigration, are you intellectually impaired or morally defunct? "Both" would also be an optional answer.

There are few political issues where the factual record and political prejudices are so diametrically opposed. South Africa, in the first blush of its youthful democratic experiment in 1996, acceded to the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to Refugees. It did so without noting "reservations" in domestic law, unlike many other countries.

Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi now says this was "a serious mistake on the part of the government".

In fact, it wasn't a mistake at all; it was a very deliberate act in consideration of all the African countries that had taken in ANC and PAC cadres over the years - thousands upon thousands of them.

You could say it was naive, but what you can't say, if you are being honest, is that the decision was an unintentional mistake.

As a result of this decision taken by the ANC out of respect for its benefactors, who paid a heavy price, BTW, for the honour, Motsoaledi has suffered a string of embarrassing legal defeats which were entirely predictable because the department...