Member Country News
The recent spate of violent attacks on foreign nationals in Alexandra and Diepsloot are the direct result of government’s failure to properly control and regulate immigration into South Africa. It was only a matter of time before resentment over the flood of millions of illegal immigrants would spill over into violent confrontation. The only way to avoid a humanitarian crisis under these circumstances is for government stop its denialism about the underlying causes of the problem and adopt measures that will see immigrants – legal or otherwise – treated in a dignified and appropriate way.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will use tomorrow’s debate in the National Assembly (agreed to after a DA motion calling for a debate earlier this week) to identify a number of key issues that need to be dealt with in order to prevent future violent attacks.
• The need to bring to an end government’s denialism about the extent of the problem of xenophobia in South Africa. This started more than a year ago when targeted attacks on Somalis were dismissed as purely criminal acts and is evidenced today by government’s assertion that the violence in Alexandria has been instigated by a sinister third force.
• Addressing the security vacuum along South Africa’s borders which is the major contributor to unregulated migration into South Africa. There is no way we can cater for the humanitarian needs of immigrants when it is not even known how many people have entered South Africa.
• Taking responsibility for the foreign policy failure in Zimbabwe which has contributed to the fact that millions of Zimbabweans have fled into South Africa.
• Addressing the administrative shambles at the Department of Home Affairs. Fake IDs and passports have made it very easy to fraudently enter into South Africa. Furthermore, the department’s complete inability to efficiently process asylum seekers has contributed to enormous backlogs and compounded the humanitarian crisis.
• Eliminating corruption at various government departments which has led to the fraudulent accessing of welfare grants, housing subsidies etc.
• The commissioning of a survey to determine how many illegal immigrants there are in South Africa, where they are predominantly located, and developing solutions which will either see them properly integrated into South Africa or returned to their country of origin.
The rise of xenophobic attacks has reached boiling point and is likely to become a crisis if not addressed properly. No amount of smooth talking or number of indabas will resolve the problems that contribute to xenophobia unless the government is frank about its policy shortcomings.