South Africans are not xenophobic. The government was emphatic about this point even prior to parliament’s ad hoc committee findings into the causes of the attacks on foreigners earlier this year in Johannesburg and Durban, which confirms the same.
As many reports before it, the ad hoc committee’s report concludes that the violence meted out to foreigners is as a result of the intolerable socioeconomic conditions that many South Africans find themselves in.
Foreigners arrive on our shores and seem to have the knack of seeing and seizing opportunities under the noses of locals. Not only do they thrive in the informal trade, they do not invite their equally struggling South African counterparts to participate in their productive activities.
Prior to the release of the report, the inter-ministerial committee on migration chaired by Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe concluded that foreigners who cross South African borders looking for a better life place a strain on existing services and in turn, compete with locals for scarce resources.
To address this challenge, the committee has proposed the tightening of migration laws to prevent the influx of foreign nationals into the country.
Both parliament’s ad hoc committee and the inter-ministerial committee choose to problematise foreigners and their ability to eke out a living where South Africans have not. Both seem to place the onus on foreigners for the hostility of locals.
A reading of the ad hoc committee’s recommendations for addressing the issue of violence against foreign nationals gives the impression that all that’s standing in the way of the business success and improved socioeconomic prospects of locals is the policing of foreigners.
The socioeconomically driven violence against foreigners is located in the need by the South African Revenue Services to police containers and counterfeit goods at ports of entry.
It is for the SA Human Rights Commission to educate foreigners about their responsibilities beyond their rights, for the minister of arts and culture to promote social cohesion, for municipalities in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal to better ensure the provision and monitoring of business permits and for the premier of Gauteng to ensure that mechanisms are put in place to ensure implementation of government’s policy of 30% procurement from Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises and 70% local procurement.
What these recommendations of the ad hoc committee imply is that locals already have the skills, have spotted the gaps in the market, and have the appropriate business models as well as greater business acumen.
They imply that there are no structural impediments, government inefficiencies, weaknesses in education and skills empowerment and skills matching, that exacerbate the socioeconomic disparities that prevail in our society.
They imply that what is standing in the way of local’s prospects for success is the presence of foreigners and government’s failure to monitor them.
Such findings only serve to exonerate the government from the role it played in creating economic dysfunction that sees millions swell the masses of the unemployed and the unemployable year after year.
They remove responsibility from policymakers to create an environment where more entrepreneurs can thrive and create employment without being hamstrung by bureaucratic red tape, barriers to entry to markets controlled by big businesses that muscle them out, lack of support and funding.
And more dangerously, they remove the onus from locals to act within the confines of the law at all times and to hold policymakers to account for the failures that continue to plunge them into the throes of socioeconomic despair.
These recommendations do not address the very serious challenges of governance, corruption, an outdated economic structural model and a failing education system that are at the root of the inequality and poverty.
Immigration is only but one part, and not the primary part, of South Africa’s socioeconomic quagmire.
The government must not use foreigners as a scapegoat to avoid making difficult choices and making far-reaching changes.
Nompumelelo Runji wrote this piece for Sowetan. Follow her on Twitter @nompumelelorunj
State should not use foreigners as excuse
As many reports before it, the ad hoc committee’s report concludes that the violence meted out to foreigners is as a result of the intolerable socioeconomic conditions that many South Africans find themselves in.
Foreigners arrive on our shores and seem to have the knack of seeing and seizing opportunities under the noses of locals. Not only do they thrive in the informal trade, they do not invite their equally struggling South African counterparts to participate in their productive activities.
Prior to the release of the report, the inter-ministerial committee on migration chaired by Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe concluded that foreigners who cross South African borders looking for a better life place a strain on existing services and in turn, compete with locals for scarce resources.
To address this challenge, the committee has proposed the tightening of migration laws to prevent the influx of foreign nationals into the country.
Both parliament’s ad hoc committee and the inter-ministerial committee choose to problematise foreigners and their ability to eke out a living where South Africans have not. Both seem to place the onus on foreigners for the hostility of locals.
A reading of the ad hoc committee’s recommendations for addressing the issue of violence against foreign nationals gives the impression that all that’s standing in the way of the business success and improved socioeconomic prospects of locals is the policing of foreigners.
The socioeconomically driven violence against foreigners is located in the need by the South African Revenue Services to police containers and counterfeit goods at ports of entry.
It is for the SA Human Rights Commission to educate foreigners about their responsibilities beyond their rights, for the minister of arts and culture to promote social cohesion, for municipalities in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal to better ensure the provision and monitoring of business permits and for the premier of Gauteng to ensure that mechanisms are put in place to ensure implementation of government’s policy of 30% procurement from Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises and 70% local procurement.
What these recommendations of the ad hoc committee imply is that locals already have the skills, have spotted the gaps in the market, and have the appropriate business models as well as greater business acumen.
They imply that there are no structural impediments, government inefficiencies, weaknesses in education and skills empowerment and skills matching, that exacerbate the socioeconomic disparities that prevail in our society.
They imply that what is standing in the way of local’s prospects for success is the presence of foreigners and government’s failure to monitor them.
Such findings only serve to exonerate the government from the role it played in creating economic dysfunction that sees millions swell the masses of the unemployed and the unemployable year after year.
They remove responsibility from policymakers to create an environment where more entrepreneurs can thrive and create employment without being hamstrung by bureaucratic red tape, barriers to entry to markets controlled by big businesses that muscle them out, lack of support and funding.
And more dangerously, they remove the onus from locals to act within the confines of the law at all times and to hold policymakers to account for the failures that continue to plunge them into the throes of socioeconomic despair.
These recommendations do not address the very serious challenges of governance, corruption, an outdated economic structural model and a failing education system that are at the root of the inequality and poverty.
Immigration is only but one part, and not the primary part, of South Africa’s socioeconomic quagmire.
The government must not use foreigners as a scapegoat to avoid making difficult choices and making far-reaching changes.
Nompumelelo Runji wrote this piece for Sowetan. Follow her on Twitter @nompumelelorunj
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