At issue are the reach of the Refugees Act and of the Immigration Act as well as the interplay between these two statutes; the effect of delay on entitlement to apply for refugee status; the operation of the exclusionary provisions of the Refugees Act, particularly section 4(1)(b); and whether this section applies only to crimes committed outside South Africa. Also at issue is the fidelity of the Supreme Court of Appeal to its own judgments and whether in this case commitment to precedent (stare decisis) was breached.
Under section 101(a)(3) of the REAL ID Act of 2005, Div. B of Pub. L. No. 109-13, 119 Stat. 302, 303, in mixed motive asylum cases, an applicant must prove that race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion was or will be at least one central reason for the claimed persecution.