Concrete Steps Needed To Tackle This Scourge

It wasn't until I had a conversation recently with a congregant from Nigeria that it struck me how the xenophobic attacks are damaging our image in the rest of the continent. I had always known this sort of senseless behaviour would impact us negatively, but this businessman and professional brought it closer to home. He had received close to 100 calls from his home country, telling him how local sentiment towards South African businesses operating there was turning negative. He was concerned and wanted to know what could be done to send a message to the rest of the continent indicating that the majority of South Africans aren't xenophobic. Since the most recent xenophobic attacks broke out, the government, and South Africa in general, have taken a firm anti-xenophobic stance.

President Jacob Zuma even missed one of his international engagements in order to be home and deal with the attacks on foreign nationals. The army has been deployed to quell the violence, marches have been organised, night vigils held and anti-xenophobia messages flighted in the media. With regard to the latter, it was heartened to see Minister Jeff Radebe on DSTV channel 153 condemning the xenophobic attacks and articulating the South African position on this matter. But after the dust has settled, we must return to a proper analysis of the situation, what led to it and how are we going to resolve it in a sustainable manner. Our point of departure is to recommit ourselves to progressive and human rights-oriented laws on immigration. Coupled with this is public awarness campaign on the positives of immigration.

Thereafter, we need a sense of how many immigrants have arrived in South Africa in the past 20 years. With our porous borders, that might be a challenge. But without appreciation of the numbers, we can't know the scale of the problem we're dealing with. Be that as it may, what is obvious is that the number of immigrants is swelling and the country has difficluty in absorbing all of them. This is borne out by the competition for resources and services that has resulted. Take the issue of jobs as an example. Most of the immigrants choose to settle in South African cities and urban areas in general, where jobs are located. As a result, the cities have become overcrowded and services are failing to keep up with the growing numbers. Most of the immigrants have found jobs, although they work in jobs and salary levels that most native-born South Africans would not take. Clearly this can't be resolved without the involvement of the business sector and labour.

To the extent that the competition is a matter of scarce resources and opportunities, we may want to consider placing a cap on the number of immigrants who can come into the country. I know this is a sensitive issue, and the last thing democratic South Africa would like to be accused of is behaviour similar to apartheid South Africa, which kept African foreign nationals out. The reality though is whatever South Africa's good intentions and or relative prosperity, it cannot and will not keep up with the growing number of immigrants. Perhaps the capping approach should be done under the AU's rules and conventions where each member country would be able to place a limit on those arriving from the continent.

Then there is the issue of border control. There are two extreme schools of thought here. There are those who say the borders in Africa must come down because they were imposed by colonialists. And then there are those who argue we must go back to the days when our border fences had razor wire and high electric voltage. Neither option is correct. South Africa can't be the only country in the continent that removes its borders. It would be downright irresponsible and a high security risk. We live in a world where terrorist groups are looking at setting up bases in any country where security is lax. South Africa needs tighter border control without making itself an island seperate from the rest of the continent. For starters, let us review the decision that was taken a few years ago to remove border security from the army and hand it over to the police.

Claims have been made that the men and women in blue work in shifts while the army had 24/7 approach to border security. In order to staunch the flow of border jumpers, let us send the army there. Of course, the approach today would be different and may need a specially trained unit, as they wouldn't be going to the border to fight a war. Lastly, Home Affairs must deal harshly with officials who exacerbate the situation by issuing false passports and IDs.