President has warned citizens against taking the law into their own hands as anti-immigrant sentiment flares up
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has compared recent anti-foreigner groups’ actions to tactics that were once used by the apartheid regime to target blacks, after a Zimbabwean man was brutally killed last week.
Writing in a weekly newsletter on Monday, Ramaphosa warned citizens against taking the law into their own hands. South Africa is experiencing a surge of anti-immigrant protests amid an influx of undocumented migrants who have been linked to violent crimes.
Angry residents have accused the police of not doing enough to stem the violence and vigilante groups were going door-to-door demanding to see people’s identification documents and check who were not South Africans. A number of attacks on foreigners has also increased in the country.
Last week, a mob reportedly stoned and burned to death a Zimbabwean immigrant, Elvis Nyathi, 43, in the Diepsloot township north of Johannesburg. Protests began in the township on April 5, after it was reported that seven people had been killed in the weekend prior to that.
“We have seen people being stopped on the street by private citizens and being forced to produce identification to verify their immigration status,” President Ramaphosa wrote, saying it was deeply disturbing to see this sort of behavior aimed at foreign nationals.
“This was how the apartheid oppressors operated,” he claimed. “Under apartheid, black people were deemed suspects by default and stopped by police when found in so-called white areas.”
Ramaphosa insisted that “we cannot allow such injustices to happen again,” while admitting that the murder of seven South Africans in Diepsloot was a tragedy. However, he stated that retaliatory actions by vigilantes were just as deplorable, and that attacks on foreign nationals were immoral, racist and criminal. He warned that “Today, our anger may be directed at nationals from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria or Pakistan. Tomorrow, our anger may be directed at each other.”
The president did address the crime rate and acknowledged that it is a serious problem in South Africa that affects all communities, but argued that it wasn’t being committed only by immigrants.
“Contrary to what is claimed by some anti-immigration groupings and individuals, the perpetrators of crime are both black and white, male and female, foreigner and citizen. Crime, not migrants, is the common enemy we must work together to defeat,” Ramaphosa wrote.
“We cannot defeat crime through incitement, violence, intimidation and vigilantism aimed at foreign nationals, and specifically nationals from other African countries.”
Ramaphosa also recognized the frustrations many of the communities have with the apparent inability of police to deal with the crime rate, pledging to introduce measures to expand the police and recruit an additional 12,000 additional officers, as well as introducing community policing forums across the country.
South Africa has one of the world’s highest joblessness rates with around 35% of the workforce unemployed. Competition for jobs, especially in low-skilled sectors, is also believed to be a factor in increasing anti-foreigner sentiment.
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