The department of home affairs (DHA) white paper on citizens, immigration and refugee protection is a scathing self-reflection — a startling portrait of a government failure that has had a devastating effect on South Africa’s social fabric.
The paper by minister Aaron Motsoaledi reveals a lack of foresight and baffling incompetence: by not adequately managing immigration, successive ANC administrations dropped the ball on a crucial issue that plays a vital role in modern society. Now, as economic resources dry up and fiscal constraints begin to bite, Motsoaledi admits that deficiencies in the department’s legislative framework underlie often violent social conflict.
“The policy and legislative gaps within the DHA have created a fertile ground for violent clashes between foreign nationals and citizens, including the emergence of belligerent groups either siding [with] or against the current migration system,” he says in the paper.
The most recent major wave of xenophobic attacks happened six weeks before the 2019 election. Twelve people died and thousands of foreign nationals were displaced; hundreds of foreign-owned businesses were set alight.
Such was the situation that the Nigerian government evacuated 640 of its citizens. (The violence had a direct impact on South African companies doing business in that country.)
Now, on the cusp of the 2024 election — and with an increase in the number of political parties espousing extreme anti-foreigner sentiments — the government and political parties will have to tread carefully to avert another round of violence.
The white paper proposes a complete, “radical overhaul” of the three acts dealing with migration, citizenship and refugees. It aims to create one piece of legislation to deal with these issues, in line with international best practice.
One proposed change is for the government to review or potentially withdraw from the international treaty on refugee protection. That’s because it admits it was a mistake not to have curtailed the socioeconomic rights extended to asylum seekers when it codified the treaty in domestic law.
It also pushes to tighten the criteria for granting citizenship, the establishment of an “immigration board”, immigration courts and curtailing the abuse of the visa regime, which Motsoaledi says is rife.
Other proposals include restricting undocumented children from the schooling system and — working with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) — repatriating refugees to their home country if the political situation there has improved or fear of persecution no longer exists.
Botswana, for example, worked with the UNHCR to repatriate refugees from Namibia and Zimbabwe, the paper notes.
But there are questions over the government’s motives in pushing for the overhaul — and over whether the authorities will see the changes through. The cynicism is justified. It took a decade to set up the controversial Border Management Authority; the legislation allowing for its creation dates back to 2013, yet it was launched only last month.
As ActionSA chair Michael Beaumont tells the FM: “What does it matter what’s in [the legislation], the ANC won’t implement it anyway. The problem is not that there is a lack of legislation, it’s that the ANC government cannot implement legislation and cannot uphold the law. Changing legislation won’t fix that.”
At the least, the process to formulate new legislation is likely to take years and the proposed law will probably end up before the Constitutional Court, says Prof Steven Friedman, director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg.
“It will go on for very long and then he [Motsoaledi] will realise he sold out on the country’s human rights commitments to no avail, because three years later, nothing will have changed.”
The policy and legislative gaps within the DHA have created a fertile ground for violent clashes between foreign nationals and citizens
— Aaron Motsoaledi
The white paper comes at a sensitive time.
On June 16, a new political party was launched in Soweto. Operation Dudula rose to prominence during the July 2021 unrest. Named for the Zulu term “push out”, the “civic organisation” quickly morphed into an anti-foreigner vigilante movement, fuelled by xenophobic sentiment in the historically — and electorally — significant township.
From the streets of Soweto, it expanded to informal settlements across Gauteng, from Alexandra to Thembisa. Now registered as a political party, it is set to contest the 2024 election.
Dudula organiser Freeman Bhengu tells the FM that dealing decisively with illegal, undocumented foreigners will be a “decider” in the election next year.
“It is one of the biggest factors. We have been talking about it for the past five or six years, now everyone is jumping on the bandwagon,” he says.
Thus far, polling differs somewhat on whether the issue will take centre stage. The Social Research Foundation’s Gabriel Makin tells the FM that, in its latest survey on election issues, jobs and the economy still emerge as the priorities for voters. However, he says, migration issues are not insignificant.
“We are finding now that immigration issues are creeping up the ranks in terms of priorities. Last year, in our first survey it stood at fourth or fifth in the list of priorities we polled. In the latest poll, it is after jobs and the economy,” he says.
For Bhengu, Motsoaledi’s proposed legislative reform is too little, too late. He dismisses it as “pure election grandstanding”, arguing that the minister doesn’t even know how many illegal and undocumented foreigners there are in the country. (The most recent census puts the total number of immigrants in South Africa at 2.4-million, a far cry from the 15-million Bhengu claims, even allowing for an undercount and misreporting.)
He adds that South Africans in informal settlements no longer trust the ruling party to keep its word. “People realise the ANC won’t change … [After elections] everything goes back to normal.”
In any event, he says it is not in the ANC’s interest to address illegal migration to South Africa. He charges that the administration benefits from the alleged destruction of infrastructure by illegal foreigners.
“They then benefit through tenders.” And, he adds, “they have mines, farms and businesses in other African countries, that is why they won’t act”.
Operation Dudula is now turning its attention to public schools that admit the children of undocumented foreign nationals; it will march to the department of basic education on November 23.
Gayton McKenzie’s Patriotic Alliance (PA) has stepped up its anti-foreigner campaign since the most recent election. He says a PA government or a government with the PA as a coalition partner will deport all illegal foreigners en masse, build a wall along the border (all 4,800km of it) and shut down all businesses that illegally employ foreign nationals in the country.
He is unapologetic when asked if the party is stoking the dangerously violent flames of xenophobia, as South Africa has witnessed in sporadic outbursts since 2008. He tells the FM of foreigners supposedly selling expired food, stealing infrastructure and selling drugs. “So who is xenophobic if they cannot respect our country?” he asks.
“This is not about politics and political parties for me, we are being colonised and the ANC comes here with a rubbish white paper to fool people,” he says.
The EFF has characteristically flip-flopped around the issue, but recently reverted to its initial stance: a borderless Africa where citizens of all countries are free to move around unhindered by visas.
Beaumont, whose leader, Herman Mashaba, has also taken a strong stance against undocumented foreign nationals, says this is a crisis created by the ANC. “The fault is the government’s … we want the world to come to South Africa, we need people to come work, invest and play here, but it is simple: enter legally and obey our laws,” he says.
And, even though the issue is a crucial one to address by any incoming administration next year, he doesn’t believe it ranks as highly as jobs, the economy, electricity and infrastructure in voters’ minds.
[Foreigners] are a convenient scapegoat for the government, [which doesn’t] have the backbone to tell the truth
— Steven Friedman
Friedman believes the immigration debate as a whole is based on myths and falsities that are not borne out in evidence. Politicians, he says, have found a scapegoat for their own failures through communities blaming foreign nationals for their lot.
“[Foreigners] are a convenient scapegoat for the government, [which doesn’t] have the backbone to tell the truth. In the white paper, Motsoaledi has made a whole lot of claims on the basis of zero evidence. It is simply not true that the law just welcomes everyone,” he says.
He is alarmed at Motsoaledi’s statements, saying there is no recognition of the positive contribution foreigners make to the country.
“You could not get your car fixed in a township over the holiday season if it were not for foreign nationals … but that’s the least of it, there is simply no recognition by the government that the vast majority of foreigners in South Africa have skills, work hard and contribute to society,” he says.
On whether migration will feature as an election issue, Friedman is perplexed: “How can it be an election issue when they [political parties] are all saying the same thing?”
Politicians have tapped into the festering rage among South African communities and have now, predictably, moved in to exploit it.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.