Cosatu Western Cape and the Western Cape Coalition against Xenophobia (WCC-AX) have said that the Department of Home Affairs should be held accountable for its role in keeping migrants stateless, without papers, and in a state of limbo amid concerns about the 30 June deadline.
March and March have insisted the national protest on Tuesday will be peaceful, while its leader, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, said the movement will not take responsibility for any violence on the day, arguing that public safety is the job of the State.
In a briefing at their offices on Monday, Cosatu’s Malvern de Bruyn read out a joint statement on behalf of both organisations, in which they voiced their solidarity and opposition to March and March and affiliated xenophobic groups’ escalating assault on African migrants.
“We understand that this is a particularly brutal attempt to divide the working class and the poor. It is intended to distract attention from the abject failures of the government over more than 30 years, to build an economy that works for ordinary people. Instead, we have an elite who live a life of luxury, while millions go hungry and jobless.
“We reject with contempt the so-called 30 June ‘deadline’ which has already caused so much chaos, suffering, and violence. It risks being but one of many upsurges of mass repatriations, tribalism, threats, and bullying,” De Bruyn said.
“March and March spreads lies about people who move to and around South Africa, obscuring the colonial roots and history of mobility across our continent. We see the conflict in the DRC, stirred up by multinational companies with their never-ending appetite for profit. We see the devastating effects of climate change in Malawi and Mozambique, as whole regions become uninhabitable.
“We understand that Africa must unite and not fragment into its colonial compartments. We also remember that this country was built from migrant labour. We remember our battles against the dompas, and we now call for renewed resistance against apartheid logics of influx control that xenophobes have taken up,” De Bruyn said.
“Blaming migrants divides us in the face of the real enemy, gangster politicians and corrupt officials who loot our hospitals for billions, the owners of the companies whose shares are soaring on the JSE, and the governing elite who support them.
“It is these same employers who are exploiting the labour of vulnerable migrants, paying them below minimum wage, and undermining collective bargaining. They are our enemy, not the exploited migrants.
“Blaming undocumented migrants fails to hold the Department of Home Affairs accountable for its role in keeping people stateless, without papers and in a state of limbo. The Department of Home Affairs is itself in effect creating undocumented migrants by failing to process them efficiently, if at all,” De Bruyn said.
“We call on all South Africans to reject the 30 June fabricated deadline, to report any actions against migrants to the authorities and relevant civil society groups, and to act in the spirit of ubuntu and support their neighbours.”
The office of Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber was contacted for comment.
WCC-AX’s Danmore Chuma, from Zimbabwe, said that he feels “really disturbed and betrayed” because the working class and the poor are fighting against each other instead of uniting to fight unemployment, poverty, inequality, and posterity.
“But now to find us in this kind of situation where thousands of immigrants are forced to repatriate to their countries of origin; people who have been contributing to the economic development of the country, to the social development of the country, to the cultural development of this country. It’s really, really disturbing.
“Immigrants are not people who are irrelevant. Immigrants are not objects. Immigrants are people who have contributed, people who can contribute to the economic development of the country,” Chuma said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday said while the right to protest is enshrined in the Constitution, it “does not allow people to threaten or intimidate others, or to engage in acts of vandalism or violence”.
“What we should seek as citizens and as a society is to work together to address the legitimate concerns that many South Africans have raised. The government has a responsibility not only to listen to these concerns but to respond with effective action. Citizens have a responsibility to pursue change peacefully and within the framework of our Constitution.
“Government has accepted that our immigration system requires substantial reform. We are strengthening border management, increasing enforcement against undocumented immigration, improving the integrity of the asylum and visa systems, and taking action against corruption that has weakened immigration control,” Ramaphosa said.
“We also recognise that where our systems have failed, they must be corrected. Where corruption has enabled illegal immigration, those responsible must be held accountable. Where enforcement has been inadequate, it must improve.”
Premier Alan Winde said: “Anyone acting outside of the law must be arrested and prosecuted. We fully respect every resident’s constitutional right to protest. However, this right must always be exercised peacefully and within the bounds of the law. I call on all residents to reject violence in all its forms.”
Theolin Tembo
iol.co.za