With an eye on recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked South African companies not to employ undocumented foreign nationals to avoid tensions with citizens in the country.
The president made the call on Monday as he addressed residents in Koster in the North West during the official commemoration of Human Rights Day.
“We should not allow ourselves that those who come from other countries, see ourselves being at war with them because it is uncouth African. The challenges of unemployment that we are facing should never mean that we should go and wage war against those people from other countries because once we do that, we just immediately promote this spirit of xenophobia that now we hate them, that they must go. What we are saying is that yes, we want people to be properly documented in our country, we want employers to be very careful to hire people who are properly documented.”- Cyril Ramaphosa
Earlier this month, residents in Alexandra in the north of Johannesburg embarked on the so-called Dudula campaign. The protest action led by the Dudula Movement targeted undocumented foreign nationals in the township.
Two controversial groups – the Alexandra Dudula Movement and Operation Dudula recently started campaigns against undocumented foreign nationals and support seems to be growing among South African communities who feel marginalized.
The South African leader condemned the campaign, describing it as against South Africa’s values, and warned that such actions could lead to vigilantism and also highlighted that foreign nationals have always been instrumental in the growth of South African industries, especially the mining industry.
Between 2010 and 2017 the immigrant community in South Africa increased from 2 million people to 4 million people. The proportion of South Africa’s total population that is foreign-born increased from 2.8% in 2005 to 7% in 2019, according to the United Nations International Organization for Migration, in spite of widespread xenophobia in the country.
A reliefweb report says the increased number of immigrants in South Africa is largely due to its middle-income status, stable democratic institutions, and comparatively industrialized economy.
Incidences of xenophobia increased between 2000 and March 2008 in South Africa with at least 67 people killed. In May 2008, a series of attacks left 62 people dead; although 21 of those killed were South African citizens. In 2015, another nationwide spike in xenophobic attacks against immigrants, in general, prompted a number of foreign governments to begin repatriating their citizens.
A Pew Research poll conducted in 2018 showed that 62% of South Africans viewed immigrants as a burden on society by taking jobs and social benefits and that 61% of South Africans thought that immigrants were more responsible for crime than other groups.