Loading ...2008 05 16 – AfriForum lays blame for xenophobic attacks at door of Government
AfriForum lays the blame for the current unacceptable spate of xenophobic attacks squarely at the door of the South African Government, and more specifically President Thabo Mbeki. This civil rights initiative, established by Solidarity, has warned for many months that the President’s policy of silent diplomacy regarding the political crisis in Zimbabwe, as well as the Department of Home Affairs’ complete inability to apply border control, will result in national instability. Now the residents of Alexandra, Diepsloot and elsewhere are reaping the bitter fruits of the government’s ostrich policy.
According to Alana Bailey, Deputy CEO of AfriForum, xenophobic violence cannot be tolerated, but at the same time the negative consequences of illegal immigration should also be realised. Currently it is estimated that as many as 9 million illegal immigrants are living in South Africa. All illegals will use the country’s infrastructure in one way or another, thereby placing a larger burden on the shoulders of local taxpayers and putting the illegals in direct competition with the most vulnerable citizens, namely the poor. One would expect of the State to make its indigent citizens its priority, but this is not the case at all. On 17 May 2007, President Mbeki stated that South Africans have to accept the fact that illegal immigrants are pouring into the country. He joked about the annual deportation of illegals at the cost of the State just before the Festive Season and also said that the Great Wall of China cannot be built between South Africa and Zimbabwe to keep illegals out.
Bailey regards the current spate of violence against foreign nationals as proof of South Africans’ frustration with the State’s incompetence and Mbeki’s silent diplomacy. “Illegal immigrants are pouring into the country at a faster rate than they can be deported. Their ability to be back in South Africa within hours from being deported, is just as legendary as the ways in which South African identity documents can be obtained illegally. South Africans also know that as long as President Mbeki refuses to acknowledge that there is a crisis in Zimbabwe, Zimbabweans will continue flooding into South Africa illegally, competing with the poorest South Africans for housing, medical care, social assistance, employment and education opportunities. Government systems are failing citizens and as a result they resort to the most primitive manner of self defence for survival, namely violence,” Bailey said. “Instead of Government accepting accountability for the problem, it is made worse – the illegals are now assured that they will get social aid and will not be deported. Thus even more South African tax money is spent on illegals – people who have already proven that they have no respect for South African legislation by entering the country illegally. This happens, while hundreds of thousands of South Africans are facing yet another winter without electricity, running water or even a roof over their heads, and on top of that are being labelled by the Human Rights Commission in a grossly generalised statement as “lazy”. AfriForum urgently calls on Government to address the crisis in Zimbabwe, and to make service delivery by the Department of Home Affairs (including border control and the eradication of corruption) a priority, before even more people lose their lives as a result of xenophobic outbreaks cause by frustration.
Alana BaileyDeputy CEO: AfriForum
AfriForum is an independent civil rights initiative established by Solidarity in order to provide a forum for the constructive activation of the civil society outside the realm of party politics for participation in the public debate and actions – see www.afriforum.co.za
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