President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for an end to vigilantism in SA’s townships, saying crime is the common enemy that must be defeated, not immigrants.
In his weekly letter on Monday he said that while the government has a responsibility to confront illegal foreign nationals, attacking migrants is “not an act of patriotism” and will lead to xenophobia.
“It is immoral, racist and criminal,” Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa’s newsletter comes amid increased attention on the problem of xenophobia in the wake of incidents last week in Diepsloot, a densely populated township in Gauteng.
TimesLIVE reported that Zimbabwean national Elvis Nyathi was murdered in a mob attack on Wednesday night in Diepsloot after a day of protest against crime and poor policing of immigration laws.
According to neighbour and childhood friend, Prince Mkhwebo, a small but angry group came knocking at the gate demanding to see the identity documents of the residents. Nyathi had no papers and hid in the vicinity until the mob found him.
Ramaphosa on Monday described the deaths of the seven people who were killed in Diepsloot as a tragedy.
He criticised those who stop people on the street asking them to prove their legal migration status and political leaders “making unscientific statements” about immigrants for political gain, saying it is the government’s responsibility to enforce migration legislation.
“This was how the apartheid oppressors operated,” he said. “Black people were forced to produce a dompas and if they could not do so, they were jailed. We cannot allow such injustices to happen again.”
However, Ramaphosa also said illegal migration poses a risk to SA’s security, stability and economic progress.
“Illegal migration affects service delivery and places additional burdens on essential services such as health care and education,” he wrote in his newsletter.
Ramaphosa said that measures being laid out to solve the problem include deploying 12,000 extra police officers. He also wants to see community policing forums (CPFs) being brought back across the country to bring communities and law enforcement together.
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