Staunching the flow of illegal immigrants will help defuse the xenophobia time bomb

When the ANC government finally addresses a problem – one which is invariably of its own making – its hasty
“solutions” often have the potential to do more harm than good.

That is, we fear, what may turn out to be the reality of the reported move by the government to control the number of foreigners employed in certain sectors of the economy. Speculation is that President Cyril Ramaphosa may flight the idea during his State Of the Nation Address tomorrow.

Apart from the fact that whatever measures are taken will merely be closing the stable door long after the horse has bolted, it is almost guaranteed than any restrictions or quotas on foreigners will be subverted through corruption.

That the ANC has been forced into this position is not so much a recognition that they have allowed our
borders to effectively be wide open for almost 28 years, but because the party has realised, somewhat belatedly, that the utter failure of immigration controls has contributed to the xenophobia sweeping our country and which is fuelled by populist political parties.

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The bottom line is that South Africans have a right to be concerned about illegal and undocumented immigrants placing extra pressure on already limited government and social sources – and specifically jobs. The vast majority of people who have settled in this country since 1994 cannot in any way be classified as refugees.

Most are economic migrants, looking for a better life than in their countries. One does not blame them for this – and our major immigrant population is from Zimbabwe, which is a chaotic mess.

However, there is no country which does not have immigration controls, so why should South Africa be any different? Staunching the flow of illegals will help defuse the xenophobia time bomb